StarFox 4: REFLECTIONS of the FUTURE
by Kit-Karamak
Summary: This story begins after StarFox Assault ends. I follow Krystal, Fox and the rest of the gang through to the return of someone they thought long dead. Action, intreague, drama and a bit of romance leads us to the day Fox finally asks for her paw. R&R! Oddly, this story still receives an insane amount of views per month, despite its age and such. xD
1. C1 FutureReflections

_YET ANOTHER STORY BY_ **KEN WEAVER JR**.

**REFLECTIONS** OF THE **FUTURE**

STARFOX / STARWING

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(Disclaimer is below) As always, you can reach me at ROCKSTARTRAVISTYatAOLdotCOM. You can IM me there, you can email me there. On occasion, I'm on FurryWriterATyahooDOTcom as well. I luv da feedback. IMs, email, reviews... I like direct feedback from the readers. Tell me what you think, be as harsh and critical as you like (see authors note below for those of you who are grammer nazis). Please enjoy!

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_**Reflections of the Future**_. 

_A Sequel_

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**Gone. There was no one. Her mind ached and she could sense no one beyond Fox, Falco and Slippy**. Did everyone die? Wolf, Leon, even Panther had disappeared from the scope of her extra sensory perception. Her mind's eye had been blinded by a metaphorical flash of shock and awe. The GreatFox had been slammed into the Apparoid defense shield and Peppy was presumed dead. Her heart ached so badly that she couldn't even begin to think, let alone sense any survivors. 

Without GreatFox, it was going to be difficult to get back to Lylat. Their system was so far away and the Arwings only held so much fuel. However, the four of them were alive. The somber quartet suddenly jumped at the sound of audio crackle.

Krystal was the first to try and grip at what her reeling mind attempted to wrap itself around: A fact… a truth; something that her eyes and ears cooperatively showed her heart and mind. On the dashboard, there was an image of Peppy Hare, wrapped in medical tape and gauze. Standing besides Peppy was ROB, the "Robotic Operative Buddy", for short. Her heart beat faster and at the same time, the sensor scope showed a fresh fourth blip, where Peppy's escape pod was approaching the four Arwings.

Relief emanated from Slippy, Falco and of course, from McCloud. But there was still so much loss of life. The Nobel deaths of StarWolf, for she could not sense them. When Fox began to speak next, his words held high hopes of the survival of StarWolf. He then thanked his team for being his friends and his heartfelt speech was one that put her own heart at ease for the moment.

It was possible that she couldn't sense StarWolf because they'd already jumped back into the Lylat System, but in the Apparoid's home world system, her telepathic abilities left her feeling empty tonight. With the death of Apparoids in the billions, there were now voices and thought patterns that had all gone silent. It was a lonely sensation, to be sure.

Another few minutes went by and Slippy was the first to break the silence. "I've done some calculations," He said, crunching numbers on a wrist computer, much like the ones he'd designed in the past for Fox and Krystal. Falco owned one as well but never cared to wear it.

"We're all ears, I'm sure. Can you get us home?" Peppy asked from his spot on the escape pod.

"Actually," Slippy said, a little less boisterous than usual, due to the somber mood of the group, "You're the one getting us home, Peppy. The Escape Pod not only has enough fuel to make the jump, but its jump drive system seems undamaged. We're all going to have to pull together so that we all j-jump together, but if you hadn't survived, we'd all be sitting for a long t-t-time, out here."

"Well then," Peppy mused, somewhat proudly. "Let's get formed up. The first thing I do, when we get back to Corneria, is plan an official retirement party. Honest, I mean it this time," the hare chuckled. After saving Pepper's life by trashing an Arwing, then driving the GreatFox right into the core of the Apparoid Home world, Peppy had gone above and beyond the call of duty, nearly dying repeatedly.

He had lost consciousness in the concussive force of careening an entire dreadnaught class vessel into a mechanical planet, but ROB was programmed to evacuate to an Escape Pod. It didn't take a telepath to realize that Peppy was spent over this mission. He, too, had seen James on the communication readout, but wasn't able to respond. It would give him nightmares and the Goddess only knew how it would affect Fox.

Fox, as the rest of the team had noted, was nearly stoic throughout the entire final battle. He was a swirl of pent up emotions, bottled and tightly sealed. Krystal worried that he would have an emotional breakdown soon, but he seemed sure of himself. Simply "brave" wasn't the word, to be sure. Once the team brought their fighters into a diamond formation around the Escape Pod, it was time for the team to attempt the Jump back to Lylat. … …

Krystal suddenly woke up. She had that dream again, about the destruction of the Apparoid Home world. It'd been almost a week now, and the nightmares of her participation in genocide still plagued her sleep. An entire race was wiped out; it didn't matter to her that they were so very mechanical. The fact was, they had thought patterns and to an extent, they had feelings. Her body felt numb with guilt. Traumatic discourse; her heart was pounding and her mind was reeling.

She pushed the blanket off of her body, lifting her paws to her face. Her fur was soaked with sweat and her neck ached. The little blue vixen's head was swimming and she attempted to reach out with her mind's eye for comfort. She closed those soft jade irises and thought of Fox.

She could actually sense him in the next room. He was asleep, in a state of Alpha. His deeply relaxed mind was an anchor to reach out for, because he'd trained himself not to slip into REM sleep, to keep the nightmares away - if only for a while. He was lying in his bed, visualizing a simplistic object, like a number or letter, to keep his thoughts from wondering. Having seen his father's image again had gotten him to thinking, this was his method to combat it.

With Corneria under massive reconstruction, StarFox found their temporary home aboard a Medical transportation ship that was orbiting Corneria. Peppy was in full recovery now; the team was given permission for a short stay until the old rabbit was released from physical therapy in three days, and Krystal had too much time on her paws.

Her thoughts turned to Sargasso. The StarWolf team would be there, if they really lived. Her soft blue bangs were half draped over her face, which lifted to gaze out the porthole above her bed. The dark void of space was illuminated with tiny white dots as far as the eye could see, and out there, somewhere, was O'Donnell's crew. She wouldn't sleep well until she knew the truth behind their fate. It caused her guilt to think that they might not have survived.

The first time she'd met part of the StarWolf Squadron was just before Venom launched its full blown war against Corneria. When StarFox had to pass through Sargasso to find Pigma Dengar, team StarWolf wasn't around. They had left their base to return the Prime Minister to Corneria, to uphold a promise, concerning the fact that Andrew Oikonni was defeated.

The Apparoid attack had been a double edged sword. If it wasn't for the Apparoids, Corneria would still be at war with Venom. Now both sides were at a full ceasefire and Oikonni was missing in action. Just as StarWolf had returned from their ransom negotiations on Corneria, they were thrust into a battle against StarFox, over an unwarranted attack on the Sargasso station.

Krystal could recall that day with ease, as it was the first day that arrogant fool, Panther Caruso, had been introduced to her. However, after the final battle against the Apparoids, Krystal's perception on StarWolf had changed. They were still mercenary thugs with a cold heart for business, but now they were respected as well.

Krystal's soft gaze reflected the dim dots on the other side of the polarized glass she stood before. Her pounding heart was beginning to relax, now that she was awake. Fox had subjugated the topic earlier in the day. His scrupulous methods of ensuring that all the Apparoids were dead, were made obvious, by flying a double patrol. It was a testament to the slight Obsessive Compulsive Disorder he had for ensuring his job was done before accepting such a lofty payment from Corneria.

And a lofty payment, it surely was. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that StarFox would be a wealthy unit after this mission. But the cost of loss was high. StarFox had a great deal of replacements to afford. The budget would, once again, be a tight one.

She could sense that he felt a tinge of guilt over the fact he was accepting a large sum for his team, when Corneria was undergoing one of the largest rebuilding efforts in Lylat History. Her mind wondered back to the present; her reverie dissipated and her eyes lowered from the window once more. She had to know if StarWolf was still alive. She considered taking an Arwing out, on her own, but leaving without waking Fox might have made him feel awkward when he found out in the morning.

The little Vix was torn. She wouldn't be able to sleep until she had ascertained as to the validity of their fate. She tried so hard to sense their existence, but on the opposite end of Lylat, she couldn't clear her mind enough to know for sure. The fact of the matter was, she had a measure of gratitude that she wished to express towards them.

Pacing the room, Krystal began to think of ways that she could know for sure. Once she knew the answers, she felt that going back to sleep wouldn't be out of the question. Unless, of course, it was bad news. Then she would have to get through a short period of mourning, in order to sleep. It was certainly taking its toll.

Five days. A business week. That's how long it had been since the team came under attack. The Apparoid war lasted two full days and decimated Corneria to the extent that not only was the planet ravaged, but the Cornerian and remaining Venom fleet was beyond devastated as well. Krystal paused before the window once more, gazing out into the night.

Her paw lifted, gently taking the silky robe from its hook. She slipped the garment over her shoulders, drawing it shut and tying the sash. The scantly clad vixen lowered her eyes, running her thumbnail over the fabric. It's sensuous, silky feel against her velvety fur was comforting and chic.

Krystal noted her own slight reflection in the glass surface. She had a look of elegance and should she wish to add her jewels, it elevated her to sheer opulence. That was the problem. Far below was the planet Corneria. There were so many people in implausible, unconceivable distress. Her heart ached for them and here she was, wearing a silk robe. Here she was, standing on a comfortable medical ship, relaxed. Her only problem was insomnia. The problems of those in the city below were far worse.

She took her pacing in a new direction, walking out of her room and down the hallway. With the robe drawn tightly around herself, the sash tied in a firm knot, she simply walked. She didn't care about the people in the hallways that raised a brow, whistled or simply stared. She just walked.

Once she got to the flight deck, she approached her fighter and climbed up to the canopy, raising it. She stepped off the steel mounting stairs and slid down into the cockpit, booting just the computer. After a moment of running through the black-box history logs, she drew up the conversation footnotes; the computer footprints of every sent and received message on the last mission.

Leon seemed as though he wasn't a conversationalist. At least not with her type, at any rate. Wolf, on the other paw, was not the type with whom to be friendly. Her best bet to inquire about the StarWolf team was, unfortunately, through Panther. Her finger stopped on the small dash-mounted holographic display, poking the numbers with some measure of interest.

After a moment of personal deliberation, she opened a subspace channel and dialed into the frequency. As much as she loathed his personality, she'd promised to at least acknowledge his existence after everything was over, back in the fight against the Apparoid Home Planet. That would be her way of breaking the ice, to make sure none of them were dead. Then she would be able to sleep.

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**Half an hour had passed** and Krystal was heading back to her room. They were alive and she would be able to sleep. It was one weight on her shoulders. Had they given their lives for her and her team, she'd have felt guilt. 

She stopped in the hallway, closing her eyes and concentrating. She sensed something painful and tried to pinpoint its location. After a moment, she realized it came from Fox's room. She let herself in, looking around for a moment before heading to the bed chamber.

Inside that room, Fox was sound asleep but obviously disturbed. He thrashed softly, calling out in what sounded to be a measure of confusion. She sat down on the edge of the mattress, placing her paws on his face.

"Wake up, Fox. Shhh, it's okay, you're not alone," She told him reassuringly. His dream began to fade, washing into the darkness of his present reality. The real world slid into focus for his night-savvy vulpine vision. Those sea green eyes landed on the visage of Krystal, dancing over her delicate build and fragile features for a moment before smiling. She spoke again, tenderly telling him, "It's all right, you're safe; it was all a dream."

"Seeing him was a hard reminder, knowing that my family is gone," He admitted sourly. "I'm glad for my friends, but blood is supposed to be thicker than water, and I have no blood left." His words were based on the fact that he saw his father's image and heard his father's voice coming to defend the Apparoid Queen.

Was it possible that the Apparoids had attached themselves to his father's body after he was jettisoned, dead or alive, by Venom, during the war? Fox conciously told himself that the memories were through Pigma but his dreams told a different story. What if the destruction of the Apparoids took his last possible chance of living with his father? What if his Father survived the Apparoid destruction? Again, he had to convince himself that the instance occurred due to memories obtained through Pigma Dengar and possibly even General Pepper.

The lithe blue vixen smiled softly. "One day, you will _be_ a father, Fox. Then you'll have your blood; your offspring. Your wife will be your ilk, your children will be your extension into the future and you'll have a strong family bond. Stay optimistic," She told him.

"Families and father figures start at 23 to 25 or so," he said with a slight shrug. "I'm going to be turning 28 next month. I feel as though I've missed my chance. You know?" Fox gave her a goofy smile, looking down at his bed sheets.

Krystal placed her paws on his muzzle, lifting his head so that their eyes met. "You're not too old for a family. I think we both know that we're attracted to one another; I don't need to be bashful or modest. On the same note, I'm not trying to be brazen, either. I'm not suggesting we start a family, tomorrow. I'm just suggesting that you not be so tense when someone suggests the possibility of our future." With that she leaned forward, gave him a tender kiss upon his forehead, then stood up from his bedside and walked to the door. "If you need me, you know where I am. Sorry to have woken you, I just couldn't sleep, you know?"

"I'm glad you did, I hated that dream. I thought I had it under control but I accidentally fell all the way asleep," Fox said sourly. He then changed his tone of voice and added, "I appreciate you, Krystal. And maybe one day, we can figure things out. I'd really like that. As far as sleeping, is everything all right?"

"It's fine, really. I think the best way to clear my conscience after that fiasco with the Apparoids," She said, fidgeting with the robe of her belt, "Is to spend tomorrow gearing up. The next day, I want to go down to the surface and start looking for survivors. It wouldn't hurt."

"All right, tomorrow we'll get some gear together. Tomorrow night, we'll all go to bed early and the following morning, the team will head down to the city and do what they can, hands on. Thank you for stopping by and visiting me, it's always a pleasure spending time with you," Fox told her with a tender, and yet slightly playful grin. When they weren't in public, he was able to come out of his shy shell around her.

She grinned slightly and stepped out of his room. She felt so sure and at ease when she was in his company. She knew what this feeling was in her chest. There was no question. But for the moment, she would have to put it aside and focus on her future objective of visiting Corneria for the first time since the attack. It was going to be hard to swallow, whatever she saw, she just knew it. Woman's intuition, it was never wrong.

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Quick little Author's Note: 

_Now, I break all the rules when I write. Reflexive pronoun use, fragmented sentence structure, ending sentences with prepositions… Shoot, I subjugate intransitives, I use verb confusion; I do it all, baby. I run on, I write sentences without verbs at all. If you can diagram it, I can cut it up. But that's my style. I'm not trying to be Faulkner. _

_I married an English teacher and you know what she told me once? She said, "The English Language is always changing… evolving, that's why it will be around forever. It adapts. What's wrong today might be right tomorrow. What's proper today might be lax tomorrow." Then, do you know what happened after that? She divorced me! So what does the English Language say now? It says there are rules and, baby, I break 'em like nobody's business! _

_That's all I'm going to say. There's my author's note, my introduction, my foreword, all rolled into one. I promised myself that I would keep this quick and simple/stupid. So I'm just layin' the cards on the table. If you wanna fold before you get started, I understand. I've been hounded by so many grammar Nazi's and not a one of them can tell me where my mistakes are. I've had one tell me I mix past and present tense in the same sentence. Like I said, I break all the rules. It's my style. But I certainly appreciate that one telling me… it helps me evolve. So if you're going to put a fire under my tail for grammar, be ready to tell me what to change and how, as well as why. Else? I'm going to ignore your little blurb about Grammar because I already know! ;) _

_One last thing, for those of you who are ready to trounce, bounce and drop the elbow on me for Krystal's age, I invite you to carefully read REFLECTIONS OF KRYSTAL. She's 16 years old, according to several Japanese sites. HOWEVER, in the research I've done, French, English and American sites claim she's 19/20 years old. So what I've done, just to refresh your memory, is I've made her 16 years old in Cerinia years. She's 16 planetary revolutions in age. However, because Cerinia takes longer to revolve around their sun than Corneria takes to revolve around Sol, her age is different by Cornerian Standards. She's been alive the same amount of seconds/minutes/hours as a 20 year old by Cornerian time standards. A day on a planet is how long it takes to go from Midnight to Midnight. It might take 30 hours on some planets. It might take longer than that, on others. The only consistency is seconds, minutes and hours. So, as far as Fox, his team and their planets in Lylat are concerned, Krystal is just about American Drinking Age. (Since it's 18 everywhere else ;) )_

_I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be re-writing the final chapter of Reflections of Krystal, asap. I re-read it. I hated it. Everything that happened isn't bad, it's just the way I wrote it. Some of the sentence structure doesn't even make sense to me; I wrote it at work and since I'm ADD, I can only fathom that I was distracted by the rest of the office, I have NO idea. Now, I've written the first three chapters for THIS story. They're done before I even post chapter one. They're not bad, in my opinion. I'm pretty darn happy with them. Chapter two has a little bit of root in what I've been watching on television. It's pretty heart wrenching to see death on television, from catastrophe due to a double hurricane blast at our southern coastal front. I would imagine that when the credits role at the end of StarFox Assault, not everything is peachy. I'll leave it to your imagination for a few minutes, and shortly after, I'll post chapter 2. What'm I doing? I'm tying up loose ends, baby! Anyone sensitive to the graphic nature of post traumatic rescue operations, I'll do a super brief recap in the author's note of chapter3, so you know what happens without reading it. TTFN, readers!_

-Ken

Disclaimer (usually comes at the beginning but boy does it clog up the header)

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(Disclaimer to be viewed in font size 6 or 8. Stupid FanFicDOTnet...)

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Official stuff: 

This disclaimer sounds like a real lawyer wrote it. (jk)Well they didn't, because I didn't even go to college! So.. yeah!

This story is used for entertainment purposes only. Any events past, present or future, which bare any resemblence to this story are purly coincidental, save for segments of Chapter 2 which are loosely based off of the situational scinario in the United States, with an army over seas and major disaster on the home front. These portions are part of the author's imagination and point of views, expressed through recolections of modern times of great catastrophy. They do not, in any way, express the complete and total opinions of said author, for he is trying to portrey something original based on his experience with that which he has seen on television.

StarFox is a trademark franchise of the Nintendo Corporation of America and Japan. StarFox is copywrite 1993, 1996/7, 2001/2, 2005. StarWing is a trademark franchise of the Nintendo Corporation of Europe and Japan. Fox McCloud, Krystal of Cerinia, Slippy Toad, Falco Lombardi, Beltino Toad and all relevant characters, objects, locations and all other intellectual properties pertaining to this story are owned soley by Nintendo. Characters licsensed to Rare and Namco are property of Nintendo of Japan.

Under copywrite clause for media, these characters are used without expressed permission of Nintendo, for entertainment purposes only. This story is not to be sold or redistributed without this disclaimer. This story may be publically distributed so long as this disclaimer remains intact, as well as the author's name remains attached.

Due to the fact that the author does not maintain ownership to any part of this story, except for the plot and layout, there is nothing he can legally do if you steal this story, claim it's yours, show it to all your buddies and fib about it. I could care less, because there's nothing I can do if you did pull such a stunt. Infact, it would be quite amusing. But it's lame to steal people's stories and claim they belong to you. If you do that, there will be a smuge on your karma, and you will once more become a virgin and stay that way until you're too old – even for viagra.

This story is not the coolest story in the world. It might be on the top 20 but I do not expect everyone on the internet to follow it as gospel. It is merely the opinionated views of the author, as to what most likely happened after SF:Assault came to it's conclusion. I will now include a subliminal message in super tiny font, between the space of every word. Only readers with high-definition monitors will be able to read this subliminal message, directing you to donate money to the author in very large sums. The author has a great deal of money to give to his ex-wife and needs to eat something with more vitamins and minerals than Ramen has to offer, night after night. The more you donate, the better the author will eat. A healthy author writes better novels.

If anyone is in the expressed interest to disagree with this disclaimer, it is their right to do so at any time. This disclaimer is BS and adlibbed on the spot. Donations to author have nothing to do with the story and everything to do with the kindness of the reader's heart, in consideration that if I see one more noodle in a cup of water, I'm going to scream. Those who refuse to read this story are turd burglers. That's right, they burgle turds and this fact is really just another oppinion of the author. Those who read this story have redeemed themselves to a status of godlyness. Congratulations on your promotion. I like pizza. Send pizza or money. Pay for my internet so I can update. Yes, the author does have kids. Two now, the third is due in January. Send pizza. Or money.

This disclaimer was written in size 8 font. If it shows up at normal size on FanFictionDOTnet, pretend that it's in fine-print sized font. Then, please, pretend that the story is in size 12 and forget that you read this. Just let it sink into your subconcious. Disclaimers rule.


	2. C2 FutureReflections

C h a p t e r _TWO_

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**Corneria was a mess. The Capitol City was in ruins.** The medical ship in orbit was able to capture satellite images that put a queasy feeling in the stomachs of McCloud's team. Even Falco had to admit that the devastation was heart wrenching. 

In the center of town, a building with large letters on the roof stood majestically. At five stories, it was now the tallest building in downtown. White plaster had layered the streets, making it look like a post apocalyptic winter. Gritty dust resembled snow, covering the ground and streets, more than ankle deep.

The building that still stood tall was the outside of a war office, which had a bunker for the Research and Development team. From a side door on the first floor of the building, Beltino Toad stepped out and wiped the back of his glistening forehead with the backside of his sleeve.

Had he not spent the last two days in his office, trying to defeat the Apparoids, he would have seen the total destruction earlier. The last few days since the attack, he was following orders to stay in the bunker, were his safety was secured. His heart sank in his chest, seeing the carnage. Beyond this building, the Capitol was leveled. Mister Toad pulled the glasses off of his head, just staring at the ash. It fell from the sky; the chalky powder made it a chore to breath.

A noise from above was the only thing heard. From the ash, the blanketed city was sound dampened, making an unrealistic silence that was as tangible as a quilt. The sound from above grew, causing Toad to look up. It was the only sound in existance.

He lifted his hand above his face, to shield his eyes from the falling ashes, replacing his glasses with his other hand, squinting into the poor visibility that was caused by raining plaster and dust. He knew the sound, only _too_ well.

"Sounds like an Arwing," he mused to himself. But he was only half correct. Four Arwings, scorched, dull and in desperate need of a wax job, descended upon the roof of the 5 story building. Beltino didn't know why, but he felt the over whelming urge to sit down on the steps and suffer in this mess. He was safe and sound in the bunker for the last few days and while most of these ashes were from buildings, some of them were particles of people who were in those buildings when they were leveled.

One of the main Apparoid bosses used a low-yield tactical nuke on a section of downtown, vaporizing a section of the main Military installation. The thought that some of this falling ash used to be organic really hit Beltino hard, right in the chest. And so, here he sat, slouched on the steps.

It was his way of dealing with his guilt. He took his glasses back off and sighed softly. The only solace he could find was the fact that it was over. Just a few days ago, Corneria was worried about a war with Venom, now that seemed like a million years ago. The war was over; it ended as quickly as it started. The Apparoids seemed to have come from out of no where. Now it was over, but the heart ache remained.

A hand touched his shoulder. The touch was soft, warm and tender. Somehow, he had a feeling that it was the female friend that lived with his son. After a moment, he glanced down to the paw and smiled a bit. Blue fur.

Krystal knelt down to one knee and hugged Beltino firmly, kissing the top of his head. He'd done a great deal to save the world and he was under-appreciated for the entire situation. Krystal made those feelings dissolve. To really drive the point home, she whispered, "My hero," in a soft voice.

"I needed that, thanks," He replied, looking the rest of the way up, at her. Behind her, Slippy and Fox stood proudly. They, too, appreciated his hard work even if they didn't always do a good job of showing it. On the other side, Falco stood with his arms folded. The ash collected over their heads and shoulders. Beltino could visibly notice it sitting on Fox's brow.

"We have to help these injured people, dad," Slippy said. Krystal nodded in complete agreement. In fact, it was her idea to begin search and rescue missions while the rest of the Military was split between Fortuna's 'Venom-Base' and helping with survivors, here. The soldiers were only one planet over, but all that aid might as well have been on the other side of the galaxy.

The war with Venom was over, and yet half the military being on Fortuna, to help restore some sort of balance was more like a policing action that was more or less worthless. At least in the eyes of the Cornerian population, Fortuna was far from a necessary military target. Pepper was an injured war hero, all over again. The Prime Minister was back but with the media network crumbling due to most of the satellites having been infected from the Apparoid attacks, no one even knew he was alive, yet.

"Let's split up into teams," Fox said. "I want Krystal to lead the first team. With her telepathic abilities, she should be able to lead search and rescue teams to trapped people. Falco, you go with her, you're strong enough to lift a table off of someone, if they're trapped. I'll have Beltino and Slippy go with me. If you guys find any other S&R groups, make sure to give them aid."

The team nodded and split up. Fox and the two frogs headed off in one direction, leaving Falco and Krystal to head in the other. Falco looked uncomfortable. The further the two of them walked into the city, the more he seemed to be torn up. It was obviously affecting him to see such catastrophic death.

"What's wrong?" She finally asked.

"A few months ago, I leveled a place, with my own hands. The Street King's gang is struggling to even survive now. But," He paused, furtively glancing around the destruction that surrounded them on all sides. After a thoughtful silence, he continued, "I had no right to tear all those men to pieces. Who knows, this invasion might have killed them, then it would be blood on the hands of the Goddess, not my own."

"That's," She frowned, "really deep. Falco, you have the chance to set things right today. With every man, woman or child we save, you'll have the chance to redeem yourself completely," She said with a promising tone.

Meanwhile, Fox and the two Toads' used tracking equipment designed by Slippy and his father, to locate the living. They were quick to move out to the suburban areas, working the poorest neighborhoods first. Back in town, Krystal and Falco came across their first person in distress, working their way north of the city.

A man was on top of the rubble, quickly attempting to pull heavy pieces of debris from what was once a home. Falco and Krystal quickly ran towards the man to help, leaving foot prints in the thick layer of ashes on the street. Krystal could sense a distressed person, beneath the rubble, and as they drew closer, she and Falco could hear their cries for help.

Lombardi quickly grabbed the heaviest thing he could find, an iron girder, about six feet long, covered by planks and concrete fragments. Krystal pulled her staff free, wedging one end beneath the metallic beam. The two of them worked the heavy chunk from off of the pile of what was once a family home.

It rolled down the side of the pile, hitting the ground and causing a puff of ashes to cloud up around it's final resting place. The three of them worked down into the pile of debris; Falco, Krystal and the Ringtail moving debris at a frantic pace, pulling it from the trapped teenage boy beneath.

"Dad, my leg is still trapped!" Said the kid. Krystal jammed the staff down beneath a piece of metal that had his leg ensnared and Falco helped her to put their combined weight against the other end of the pole, prying the debris from his ankle, long enough for him to pull his leg free. The man quickly scooped up his boy, leaning to hug Falco, then Krystal.

It gave them a huge sense of pride, but with the situation still fresh, they couldn't stand around and wait. They exchanged a few words, before Lombardi and Krystal pressed on. The two member team had another short walk before Krystal picked up someone who radiated with panic. She nodded down a block, where at least three out of every five homes had been leveled. The Apartment complexes back at the edge of the city limits were far worse, but some of these homes looked as though they were burned to the ground from Apparoid invaders.

The city once loomed above these homes, like majestic white spires, but now the skyline was empty behind the suburban dwellings. Krystal quickly bound up the side of the wreckage of a home, sensing fear and hunger in the small family trapped beneath the rubble.

A female Merkatt was beneath a collapsed roof. She'd climbed beneath a bed, and between that bed and it's nightstand, the heavy roof never crushed her. She had no idea that the Apparoid invasion was over. She only knew that she was scared and was trying to protect her child.

The baby's crying sounded half muffled, beyond the fact that there was a roof atop of them. She had tried, futilely, to feed the baby from her breast, but because she was so completely terrified, the baby wasn't taking the offered gift.

She attempted to quiet the child with the milk, because she was so completely scared that the crying would attract the Apparoids and they would surely die if found. Tears streamed over her soot covered cheeks, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. The Merkatt began to pray softly, over choking sobs, in an attempt to appeal to the Goddess to be delivered from certain death.

Krystal and Falco worked diligently to work the debris and parts of the roof from atop of the house. Krystal used her staff to freeze a section of roof, then used the pole like a bat to shatter the section. The harder they worked, the more terrified the woman became. Krystal's paws clinched the staff, feeding off the fear and trepidation emanating from the innocent beneath them.

"Quickly, Falco! She's scared to death and I cannot determine why!" Krystal exclaimed. She slid down on the side of the debris pile, straining to lift a section of roof. Meanwhile, Falco moved down to the other side of the section, helping her to heave it aside. Finally, the bed was uncovered and they could clearly hear the baby crying beneath it.

Krystal snatched the blanket off of the bed and shook it hard; the rubble was freed of the blanket and she held it open. Falco lifted the bed, putting his legs and lower back into the effort. Krystal knelt down before the trembling mother and baby, gently enshrouding them with the cover, hugging them to her chest as tenderly as she could manage.

"Shh, you're safe now," She whispered into the woman's ear. She could feel the woman shaking from fear and adrenaline. At last, the lady was finally beginning to grow calm.

Falco sighed, looking away. He couldn't bare the scene because it brought him to the verge of tears. He was one of those men who refused to cry and so his attention was directed off in the distance. "How many do you think are just like this? It's been at least a week since the Apparoids burned this city to the ground; we've got to appeal to the General to bring more aid in from the troops on Fortuna."

"I'm so," Both team members glanced down to the shivering woman and baby in the blanket, who began to speak with a soft, sob-choked voice. "So... hungry. It's been four days beneath my bed and my home," She told them.

"Where's your husband?" Falco asked, kneeling down besides Krystal, who still held the blanket-wrapped mother and child in her arms.

"I..." The woman trailed off.

"Lost him in the attack?" Falco asked.

"No. I don't have one. I'm single," said the merkatt, with a slight look of shame on her face. Krystal gently rocked from left to right, holding the mother and child in her comforting embrace.

"Shh, it's fine. He didn't know; no one thinks any less of you," the azure vixen assured the woman. Krystal could sense that the woman was sensitive on the issue, especially in such a vulnerable situation. "There's a stadium in town where you can stay for free and have fresh, hot meals and water. We'll take you there," Krystal softly whispered. Falco offered his arm to help the three of them get to their feet.

It was obvious that the woman was a bit weak, from poor sleeping and nonexistent eating conditions. He made the suggestion to carry the woman on his back and let Krystal carry the child. The woman took him up on his offer and the two pilots found themselves carrying the woman and child back towards the city. Once they were delivered to the proper officials, they headed back out to look for more survivors.

It would certainly become a long day. Fox, Slippy and Beltino had similar luck, finding two survivors. Their situation was a little less joyous, however. Fox and Slippy worked to uncover a collapsed wall in an apartment complex, while Beltino dug through the loose rubble until they found the paw of one of the survivors.

Due to the way the building shifting during its destruction, there were people who didn't make it. A young coatimundi cub reached his gray and white paw up through the planks and dirt, capturing Beltino's hand. Fox and Slippy doubled their efforts, pushing the heavier materials away. They quickly realized that at least one of the cubs was covered by the body of their parent, who didn't make it.

It was obvious that the father used his own body to protect his son and daughter from the building collapse; it was all that saved them. The trio found a plank, using it to pry a concrete section of wall, to help the cubs to freedom. Fox scooped up the children, either was only about 9 or 10 years old.

"Where's our mommy?" The little boy asked. His sister was a bit shyer, obviously reluctant to speak just yet. "She went for help before our building fell down, I miss her," the boy added.

"We'll take you into town, and see what we can find out," Fox promised, nodding over at Slippy and Beltino. Slippy climbed down the side of the massive pile and reached up for the children. Fox handed them down, one at a time, then climbed down to join his friends. He took the little girl, putting her on his shoulders, while Slippy carried the boy. Beltino double checked the pulse of the father, shook his head, then joined them.

The group headed back into town, walking in through the front entrance of MegaStadium. The domed top had holes in it, but the structure seemed to withstand the attack, miraculously. They followed the signs towards the section where parentless children were being delivered. The boy was getting heavy for Slippy and so the two switched. Fox put the boy up on his shoulders and Slippy took the little girl, who was much easier to carry.

Aisle after heart-wrenching aisle of children with missing parents took up the entire bleacher section. The benches had been removed, to make room for sleeping blankets. Occasionally, Fox and the crew would pass an adult, who walked the aisles with forlorn looks upon their faces, trying to search for their children who might be in this area. The little coatimundi on Fox's shoulders suddenly started wiggling anxiously.

Somewhat surprised, Fox reached up, taking him by his underarms, lifting the boy over his head and setting the kid on his feet. Almost immediately, he sprinted off. Fox blinked twice then pursued in a brisk walk. The little boy dashed through the aisles, running up to what looked from behind, like a gray, bearish looking being.

Fox's eyes widened in disbelief. Was it really that easy? Would this turn into some sort of fiasco; probably not, the kid knew this person, that was all that mattered. His head tilted, approaching the adult from behind as well. The child quickly grabbed at the man's shirt, who spun about, looking down. Their facial features were very close, but the markings were only slightly different.

"Patrick!" The older Coati exclaimed.

"Uncle Mike!" The little boy exclaimed. It wasn't his father but family was family and that was a huge relief to Fox. McCloud waved his right paw in the air, calling Slippy over. Beltino followed as well. The older Coatimundi waved someone else into the area as well, while Slippy placed the little girl on her feet, besides her brother.

A woman walked into the area, with markings nearly identical to little Patrick and his sister. She quickly broke into a dash, dropping to her knees and drawing the children into her arms, choking on her own sobs. Her chest heaved from nearly hyperventilating. The children responded in a gleeful round of weeping, both in mourning and in joy. Their father was dead but the mother and an uncle were both survivors.

The Coati extended his paw to Fox, saying, "Thank you, Sir. I'm Mike Mundi, I'm their uncle." Whether he was this woman's brother or brother-in-law, Fox didn't know. He wasn't sure how hard this man would take the news of death. These children owed their lives to him, to be sure.

"It was my pleasure, Mister Mundi. Unfortunately," Fox said, pausing for a soft sigh and placing his own paw into the paw offered, "Their father wasn't as lucky. He gave his own life to protect them during the collapse."

The man bit his quivering lower lip. He nodded in silence. After a moment, Mike Mundi replied, "I'm privileged to have been his brother in law. He was an auspicious, providential man to have these children and was especially good for my sister. He'll be missed."

"I'm glad you guys were here," Fox admitted with a reassuring, gentle voice. He remained absolutely respectful, knowing this family was going through a massive tragedy. "If it makes you guys feel any better, we lost our home to the Apparoids, too."

The handshake was finally relinquished and the man patted the pilot's shoulder, "I'm sorry, sir. We owe you so much for bringing these children here, and I didn't even get your name sir," Said the gray furred man.

"Fox McCloud," came the reply. Fox's response garnished a typical reaction: Surprise.

The Coati tried not to stammer. "Someone down on the field said you fought the Apparoids off; it was a huge deal on the news before we lost the broadcast signal. They said something about you being known for being a money hugger, but that you were fighting the Apparoids without a retainer fee and that it was a huge surprise and unlike your character… I.. I'm sorry, I just thought you were a mercenary for hire… I don't have any money to offer for bringing home Patrick and Melissa," He said.

"Yeah," Fox drew the word out slowly, then continued, "I'm a mercenary. But it's true, the Military didn't give us a retainer fee; we just joined the fight against Venom. Half way through the battle, the Apparoids attacked. Pepper offered to pay us for services rendered and we have insurance on the GreatFox but with all the insurance claims that are getting filed, I don't see a new ship very soon."

"May I be so bold as to ask what happened to it?" The man asked.

"If the insurance company found out, they might not replace it," Fox replied with a sheepish grin and a little bit of subtle humor. "But between us, it was our Divine Wind against the Apparoids. We, uh, buried it in the side of their planet; gift wrapped and delivered."

"You rammed your home into their planet to fight them? That's far more selfless than the media makes you out to sound," the Coati said with a soft chuckle. The man's sister approached Fox, having finally been able to tear herself away from the children. The chulu bear's anatomy was a bit of a hodgepodge. Her snout was hedgehog-like, the ringed eye mask was like that of a raccoon and her canine teeth would do a wolf proud.

More importantly, she was shapely and had large reflective-looking eyes. She reached her paws up, on either side of Fox's muzzle, then leaned forward and gave him a kiss of gratitude. It caused Fox to blush, but he didn't pull away. She lowered her paws to his chest, leaning up to his ear and whispered.

"Thank you, Mister McCloud," She said in soft, dulcet tones. Fox offered a nervous nod, smiling shyly.

Fox found his breath and replied. "It was my pleasure, Ma'am. My condolence on your husband's passing. The children were lucky to have him with them."

"Your commiseration is appreciated," said Mike, coming to his sister's side. "You have our sympathy as well on the loss of your home. It seems we're all neighbors when things like this happen; it makes the world a smaller place and brings the people together. It's quite amazing to see so many people giving and donating."

"I wish we were in the position to donate," Slippy mused, coming to stand besides his team leader. Fox was his best friend back in grade school, because Fox was one of the few-if-only people to see potential in the young frog. He was life long friends with McCloud and no matter how annoying he was, Fox was always there to defend him. He knew Fox and this team was in no position to donate money, with so much gear needing to be replaced.

"You've donated something better than money," Said the lady, giving Fox a hug, then giving Beltino a hug and finally giving Slippy a firm embrace. "You're all heroes as far as I am concerned. Don't let people's gossip get you down, you guys have my respect."

"I appreciate that," Fox told her with an earnest tone. "I've got to get back out into the city to see what else I can do, but please take care," He told them. The lady gave him one last kiss on the corner of his muzzle and her brother shook Fox's paw one last time before the trio departed. It was time to head back out into the field and search for more survivors. The day wasn't over yet.

* * *

**The group met up** by the end of the day. It was obvious that everyone was exhausted and Beltino offered to bring the group home and let them have dinner on his accord. The catch of the situation was, because most everywhere in the city had been destroyed, his home consisted of a laboratory at the Research and Development center. The only other option was an office he had, up on the orbital jump-gate. 

Falco crashed into a futon by a computer, while Slippy sat down on the floor, besides the futon. Fox slumped onto the cot that Beltino was using to sleep; Krystal sunk onto his lap and sighed. Beltino walked into the kitchenette, making several TV Dinners and sat down on the chair at his computer desk, while it heated up. He scuttled about the small area on the rolling black leather chair, leaning into the backrest.

"What a day, man." Falco was the first to break the silence. "Krystal and I uncovered six people and some guy's exotic pet, don't even ask."

"That's pretty good," Slippy said, giving a nod of approval.

"Definitely good," Fox agreed. He was reluctant at first, but finally rested his right arm around Krystal's waist. It was comfortable and the angle she was perched upon his lap made it easy to just rest his arm around her. "We found two kids, an elderly lady and some guy who was trapped inside of a basement. His stairs were caved in and he was living in the basement on rations and alcohol. It was a little precarious, to say the least."

"What happened?" Krystal asked, leaning back into his chest.

"Well," Beltino said, pushing himself on the chair, until he was back in the kitchenette, "He was too inebriate to know what was going on. When Fox tried to guide him out through the hole we made, he pulled a weapon on Fox. It was unloaded; the guy insisted he be allowed to stay but he didn't have any water, just alcohol. He was obviously dehydrated!"

Falco blinked, as did Krystal. Lombardi was the first to ask, "He put a gun in your face, Mac? Did you beat his tail, Foxie?"

"I disarmed him, without hurting him," Fox admitted sourly. "He didn't know what was going on; he didn't even know his house was reduced to sticks and stones."

"I'm sorry you went through that," Krystal said, patting his knee sympathetically. "We did a good service to Corneria today, boys." She smiled thoughtfully then added, "I'm proud of you all."

"Thanks," replied Slippy, pulling one knee up to his chest from his position on the floor. Beltino began serving the TV Dinners in their plastic trays with plastic utensils; Slippy was quick to dig in, resting the dish on his other leg, using his drawn knee as an arm rest. The group continued to share stories for another hour and a half before heading back to the Medical Ship where they had temporary rooms and where Peppy was in recovery.

The team went to their respective rooms but Krystal wanted to visit Peppy before turning in for the night. She stepped into the medical bay, walking across the lobby to the head nurse. After a short conversation, she was directed to Peppy's room.

After politely knocking on the door, she stepped in and sat down by his bed. "How're you feeling, Peppy?" She asked, placing her palm on his left knee, using her other paw to brush one floppy ear from his eye. He scrunched his nose, forcing his glasses up towards the bridge, and then turned to her with a somewhat impish grin.

"I've got Physical Therapy sessions scheduled every morning and every other evening until the end of the week," Peppy explained. "The head doctor says I'm making good recovery time; I should be ballroom dancing with his daughter in two more weeks," the elderly hare joked. It was becoming common knowledge that the head doctor's daughter was a beautiful bunny who was recently promoted to head of the nursing staff.

Krystal flashed a grin, reaching to take his glasses. She squinted through the lenses then brought them to her shirt and cleaned them. Once they were perfectly smudge-free, she reached forward, setting them back upon his nose.

Peppy chuckled softly, "I could get use to all this attention. Some of these nurses here are real knockouts." He sat up a little, shifting his weight. "I heard you guys were spotted going into the stadium in Capitol City, not once but several times. What's the scoop?"

"We made an effort to save lives, today. It was my idea, I really felt it was in our best interest to try and show the public our true colors," She told him.

"It's a great idea," Peppy acknowledge with a knowing smile, "It will help the public perception of who StarFox is, compared to the typical mercenary rep we get from the media."

"I think it was therapeutic for the boys to be proactive, today," Krystal thoughtfully noted. She rubbed her fingers together, looking down for a moment then offered a secret, knowing smile. "I've fallen in love with Fox."

"Have you told him?" Peppy asked, shifting his weight once more, so that he could sit up straight, in the hospital bed. The remote made the end of the mattress lift up so that it somewhat resembled a chair.

"Not yet; he's not ready. He'll know when he's ready, you know?" She paused then added, "I can sense his feelings for me. He's just not good at showing them, yet. He has the confidence, but when it comes to his emotional side, he's a very private, reserved man. I respect that. But I know he'll come out of his shell, one day."

"He had a girlfriend in school once," Peppy recalled, taking a moment to remember all the details. "They didn't last too long; they broke up mutually. He was more focused on his grades and graduation than romance at the time. I respected that about him, most boys that were his age were being completely adolescent about dating."

"What happened?" Krystal asked, fishing for details.

Peppy gave a shrug. There wasn't much to tell. He thought about it, then finally answered. "Nothing, really. Just a few dates, a movie or two. After that, it was over. He had school and wanted to concentrate. Nice girl, but not his type anyhow. Even if you don't see it, the boy is finally ready for a relationship. He's turning 28 years old in three weeks. You two really should take a load off and go do the dating thing. You don't have to rush into it, let it blossom. I was married once, you know."

"Really? You were? How did it turn out; what happened?" She asked, leaning in to learn. She could sense his accuracy in the story, but wanted to know personal details. Krystal, like many women, enjoyed romance and drama, to an extent.

"She's why I joined the military. We were married for a few years, when Andross started ordering senseless acts of terrorism against Corneria. It was shortly before the Great Lylat War, really." Peppy frowned for a moment, stealing a glance at Krystal before finishing his story. "She joined the military and I followed suit. I wasn't a sad old man who never found love, no; she was the best thing to ever happen to me."

"Did… she die in the war?" Krystal asked. It was a rhetorical question, since she could sense the answer.

"She was awarded with the Silver Star for bravery and conduct befitting a hero. That was the official reason," He explained. Krystal head tilted. He knew her next question would pertain to his use of the word 'official,' so he explained before she could ask it. "Unofficially, it was because she gathered critical intelligence from a reconnaissance mission on Macbeth. She was captured and managed to escape from her incarceration, snuck into a communication office on Venom and reported her findings through an encrypted message. Her information led to us learning about the BioWeapons on Aquias and Sol."

"Was it detailed information?" Krystal asked, more interested than ever. She had some minor details on the biological entity that Andross had placed on Cerinia's own sun, but anything she could learn about the bio-weapons used in Lylat would help her to answer any and all lingering questions. Doubts and inquiry remained. She had no home in which to return, but it was obvious that she wished to know all she could ascertain.

The rabbit shrugged and offered her a knowing smile. "I might be able to pull up the information through the military database. I'm allowed to obtain information that's over a certain age, especially since I'm retired from the Cornerian Military with outstanding honors. I'll see what I can learn for you," Peppy said, promise in his voice.

"I would appreciate it. Anyhow, I'm going to head to bed," She told him, leaning to kiss his forehead. "Feel better. I've got personal errands to run tomorrow morning, but I won't be out all day. Take care, Peppy." The aging rabbit gave a half-wave and a smile before sinking back into a lounged position on the mattress. She shut the door behind herself after dimming the lights just slightly.

After such a long day, she would certainly be able to sleep well. She'd been having nightmares about how hard the feelings of despair made her feel, after wiping out the Apparoid race, but last night she actually slept through the night. After an entire day of helping people, she felt assured that the dream wouldn't return tonight, either.

Her gut feeling was right. She slept better than she had ever slept in ages.

* * *

A/N: _Hey gang, let me know how this chapter made ya feel? There's the review button, right there on the lower left... Thanks:D_


	3. c3 FutureReflections

A/N: _Someone said they wanna see what happens to StarWolf after Assault. I've detailed that, here... near the end. Remember, your feedback helps to shape this story, little by little. Keep it comin' Folks!

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C h a p t e r _THREE_

**Krystal ran her fingers through her hair, staring at her reflection in the mirror**. So many memories flooded back into her mind by just gazing into her own soft green eyes. She was, in a sense, reading herself. Her paws closed into fists, keeping a lid on some of the more emotional scenes that passed before those soft jade orbs. While some of the more recent memories were catastrophic and heart-wrenchingly melancholy, the memories of this past week have been redeeming in many ways.

For so much loss, she felt somewhat at peace, from helping countless victims. It was something that restored her inner willpower. It gave her metaphysical strength and she couldn't help but feel optimistic and a measure of restoration in her heart. The simple act of becoming a local savior helped to give her an emotional high.

With the news that Fox had reunited two children with their parents, and having found the mother with her baby, as well as a great deal of others, Krystal quickly realized something important. These acts of purity and selflessness served to placate her heart. She was able to focus on something other than the heart ache she experienced during the destruction of Cerinia, as well as the plight and feeling of helplessness early on, when visiting Sauria.

It wasn't that she was consumed by pain from these recent horrific occurrences. No, she knew how to keep herself from being swallowed by feelings of despair. But the fact that she felt so much positive energy from each saved victim, she was actually buzzing off of an emotional high. Her world was filled with the metaphorical pink butterflies and roses, this morning.

Poor Falco and Slippy were aching from yesterday's physical exertion. Fox didn't ache so very much from his overly athletic stature, but he was easily as tired as the rest of the team. Krystal, on the other hand, was bright eyed and bushy tailed. That which had started as a mission for answers to her past, turned into an entirely new lifestyle. She was ascending to the height of her life as a young woman.

Only one thing remained. In her culture, the climax of achieving womanhood began with courtship and settling down with a life-long mate. It was becoming obvious that her mate would be Fox McCloud, but for his age, he seemed somewhat nervous or shy about taking that next step.

As naïve as she could sometimes be, she knew that Panther Caruso would be a foolish mate choice, however, she did promise to at least consider the idea for a simple date, during the climatic battle leading up to the fight with the Apparoid Queen. She loathed the thought of it, but a promise was a promise. Maybe she could even make a difference in the man's life by offering some sort of friendship or even advice.

She lowered her gaze from the mirror and tilted her head. She disliked the idea of heavy makeup. It was a Cornerian thing and didn't suit her well. A light touch up of the lips wasn't so bad. Even doing her nails and using the little eye-lash 'thing' was at her speed. Beyond that, makeup seemed frivolous. She enjoyed the feminine aspect of a Lylat lifestyle, but she knew how not to go overboard with it.

Today was the arranged day to tie up that bothersome loose end; she was actually going on an afternoon lunch date with none-other than Panther Caruso. She'd made him promise to behave, two days ago when they spoke last, to make the arrangements. She felt like she owed him this, since he wanted it so badly, for helping to save the StarFox team in the Apparoid home world system. It felt dirty, in a way, but it was the least she could do. After all, he was buying.

She felt awfully adolescent. This was something school girls did. She didn't care much for dating, especially if the man wasn't her idea of mate material. Krystal glanced back at the mirror and frowned. Why was she trying to brighten up her appearance? She could care less if Panther was pleased or not. Finally, she gave a shrug and reached her paw for the bathroom light. This wasn't so very necessary, she finally decided.

After reminding Peppy that she was going to take her 'day off' and run some personal errands, she headed for the flight deck. It seemed silly to take a fighter to a date, but with the destruction of her shuttle, the Arwing was all she had. It sat proudly in the hanger, canopy elevated and freshly waxed. The crew of the medical ship that StarFox used as a home was kind enough to ensure this fighter was ready for the date. Seeing her approaching reflection in the hull was a nice touch.

She placed her padded paw against the fuselage and spoke softly to the machine, "If he tries to be an arse, promise you'll get me out of a jam?" To her words, the fighter didn't reply. It simply sat on the flight deck, stoic and majestic.

* * *

**The** **city was suspended high above the oceans of** Zoness. Over several thousand feet below was an endless dark green and purple splash. It was as colorful as spilling gasoline into a small puddle of water. From this height, it was actually beautiful. Krystal sat quietly at the restaurant table, half wondering if she'd been stood up. That's when her telepathic ability began tingling – he had arrived.

Another moment passed, when she suddenly felt something soft, velvety almost, passing across the side of her muzzle. A delicate fragrance began to waif over her senses. The soft red rose passed along her cheek, stopping at the corner of her mouth, drawing up over her moist nose. Her eyes lowered to the ruby object at the end of a thorny green shaft. Romance on a Stick. It sort of described he who held the other end.

Her gaze lifted and her head turned, taking in his strong, mocha-furred visage. "Perhaps you would care for some coffee? How do you like it made? Strong and Black, like a man should be?" It was the creamy, deep throated voice of Panther Caruso. As her head lifted, his eyes passed over her face and he feigned a gasp. "Ah, but Krystal, do you have a bit of feline in you?"

She simply blinked. "…No, I don't," She replied, not sure where this was going.

"Would you _like_ a bit of feline in you?" He asked, moving about her side, the rose in his left paw, a silver serving platter with fresh coffee in his right. He placed the tray on the table, easing into the seat across from her. Krystal, on the other hand, wanted to balk but she was possibly too naïve to understand his gaudy humor. She tilted her head then frowned, sensing his meaning.

"That was completely inappropriate," She warned in a subtle voice, lowering her nose, gazing up at him through those soft blue bangs. It was 'the look' that only a woman could give, her brows raised, her arms coming to fold across her chest.

Panther defensively brought his paws up and interjected, "I tease, my little violet. Don't be offended, it's simply my nature. Have you even _had_ coffee before?" He asked, reverting the subject to his initial ice breaker. He tilted his head a bit, adding his devilishly charming smile.

"I'm afraid I have not," Krystal quietly replied. "I thought your favorite café was on Corneria?" She followed with inquiry.

"It was, unfortunately, destroyed," Panther said, carefully wording his statements with a slow tongue and relaxed air. He released the Rose, laying it across the silver tray and reached for her paws. "As sweet as you are, I'm willing to wager that you take cream and sugar with your coffee, Krystal."

She pulled her paws back, folding them upon her lap. Her eyes flitted up over his expression then lowered once more in an attempt not to blush. "No, I'm not cute," She said, before he could speak again. His eyebrows raised; after a moment of pause, he began to chuckle.

Panther shook his head in laughter then added, "So it's true! You're as telepathic as can be. I thought you were supposed to have some sort of extra-sensory ability, but that is fantastic!"

"Yes, I… I can sense things," She admitted, trying to stay coy in a way. Panther closed his eyes and immediately began to envision himself pressed to her, giving her a night of slinky rapture. She suddenly gaped, reaching out to slap him. Her paw danced off his cheek with a quick snap of her wrist. "You are out of line, Mister Caruso! If you weren't such a womanizer, people would respect you more!" She said, sitting back down and folding her arms.

Panther lifted a paw to his cheek, smiling deviously. "Ah, but you hit with such grace. Mmm," He purred softly, causing a guttural, deep sound in his throat. "Some say I turn uptight girls into easy ones. I say that I free them from holding back. Do you want to be free, little Krystal?"

"I'm freely dating Fox," She fibbed, sticking her tongue out; her ears lowered, laying flat. "What do you think of that?"

Caruso, once again, chuckled softly and shook his head. "You're precious. But I love how spirited and feisty you can be. What a turn on. At any rate, you're a bit out of my league. You're a forbidden fruit I could never bite. You see, my addiction for women consumes me; I wouldn't be able to hide my side-lovers from a telepath," He admitted, donning a predatory grin. If he couldn't get her to offer a relationship, he wanted to get her to offer one simple night.

Krystal lifted her right paw, waggling her finger at him. "Mind your thoughts, Mister Caruso. They betray you." The little vixen said all the right things and she had all the right moves. Panther licked his lips, reaching for the coffee cups, pouring the fresh dark liquid. Steam emanated from the porcelain object and Krystal sniffed in curiosity at it. The chocolate-furred feline passed the cream and sugar with a grin. "Will you behave? Your thoughts are quite lewd," She said, raising her brows and glaring at him.

He cleared his mind and it caused her to smile. She reached for the coffee cup, the cream and the sugar and the luncheon began.

* * *

**The date finally concluded** and Krystal found herself at the glass doors, looking out over the open flight deck, suspended high above Zoness. Soft droplets of rain began to fall. Drizzle that was once an acidic danger to anyone, was now just dirty rain that did nothing more than require fresh paint jobs on buildings and vehicles every few years.

Panther approached her from behind, stopping at the door as well. "Not what you think," He told her quickly. "I don't want to ruin my silk shirt in this mess," He said, leaning to pat her on the side of the muzzle.

"I'm telepathic, remember?"

"In that case, you're right. I'm here to flirt with you more before I leave," He replied with a soft chuckle. "You'll make an honest man of me, yet."

"Is that even possible?" She asked in a playful manner, turning her gaze back to the rain. The Wolfen besides her Arwing had a massive Rose decal painted on the side. It was very well detailed, down to a dew drop on one of the petals.

"Ah, Krystal," Panther said, turning back to the glass doors. "_Vous avez capturé mon coeur. Je suis dans l'amour avec vous_." His softly spoken tone returned, speaking the romantic language skillfully. Before she could react, he pushed the doors open and walked out into the rain, crossing the flight deck and climbing up the side of his fighter.

"For a chauvinist pig, he does have a sweet side," She mused. She wasn't quite sure how she could have captured his heart, much less how he could be in love with her after one silly afternoon with a coffee pot and chopped salmon over a Caesar salad, but most likely, he said such things to all sorts of women.

Panther Caruso's fighter lifted from the deck and descended into the clouds. Krystal waited another few minutes then sighed, opening the doors. It was as if the goddess smiled upon her; as soon as she opened the doors, the rain ended. She walked across the deck and ascended the metal staircase to her fighter. One of the flight deck attendants ran out to the Arwing, stepped on a braking latch on the stairs, then began to wheel them away from her Arwing.

Once she was clear, she eased back on the stick, lifting the fighter from the deck and gave the throttle a boost. The fighter responded with confidence, heading forward, lifting into the sky. Her thoughts began to slowly, but surely revert to yesterday.

Corneria was still a graveyard and she was letting that fact tug at her mood, again. If she didn't do something about it, she would wind up having that blasted dream again, she just knew it. Krystal's eyes lowered to the chronometer built into the dash of her fighter. She debated over heading back to Corneria, but she wouldn't be much help on her own. Fox and the crew felt a little tired after an entire day of tail-busting work and she didn't want to beg them back to the Cornerian surface.

She wasn't a trained expert on this sort of thing. If she tried digging someone out of a pile of rubble, she stood the same chance of the pile collapsing and if she fell in, there would be little chance of getting help. That's when an idea suddenly struck her.

If she could somehow appeal to the Prime Minister and General Pepper, she could have them bring troops home from Fortuna and possibly leave Fortuna's clean-up to volunteers. There was only one way to know if she could make that difference and that was to try and obtain an audience with them, personally.

The Arwing made great time back to the Medical ship. She landed and headed for her personal quarters. The first order of business was a hot shower, followed by picking out clothes that were more of a type of business attire. If the Prime Minister wouldn't hear her out, she could remind him that he owed her for saving Wolf and Leon's sorry butts back on Aquias a few months ago. (A/N: My prequel to this story, _Reflections Of Krystal_)

The thing was, if he was still reluctant to speak to her, she could always try to appeal to General Pepper, directly. The fact of the matter was that Pepper was in a hospital, unfit for duty. Whoever the little weasel was that called the shots in Pepper's absence, that's possibly who Krystal needed to target.

That was just it, Lieutenant-General John Weaselly was the one keeping half of the military on Fortuna, when there was precious time being wasted. Who knew how much longer the starving victims trapped beneath the rubble of Corneria could hold out? Even if they were ordered back to Corneria right away, how long would it take and how much help could they provide, after an entire week since the attack?

Maybe Krystal was missing the bigger picture? Was there a reason for the military to stay on Fortuna that she didn't comprehend? What if there was some sort of military situation there, which she didn't know about because it wasn't on the news?

Krystal simply sighed, kicking off the outfit she wore on the date. She toiled in her personal bathroom, pulling a towel from the linen closet and hanging it on a hook. She opened the frosted glass door, stepping into the shower booth. With that, the little blue vixen reached for the water controls and pressed a few buttons. The shower took a moment to heat the water before it erupted from the nozzle.

Her mind was a swirl of thoughts right now. How could she best appeal to Pepper's temporary replacement? How could she best help the stranded people of Corneria, right now? She was lucky to have not been injured doing her job yesterday, but doing it alone was even harder. Her only other alternative was to temporarily join a volunteer S&R unit, operating in the city.

Now that was an option.

* * *

Meanwhile...

**Wolf O'Donnell groaned, slapping his forehead in mock defeat**. "Are you frickin' kidding me? You went on a date with that little blue thing, on Fox McCloud's team?"

"She's," Panther paused, looking for just the right word, "Irresistible, what can I say, Boss?" Caruso returned in that smooth, relaxed voice he was known for. "I won't let it interfere with my work, relax."

"I don't care who you hang around with," Wolf snorted. "But you're a big mouthed idiot who won't be able to help but tell her every little secret about our jobs, and I can't have that."

"It doesn't matter," Panther replied with a chuckle. "She really is as telepathic as the rumors suggest."

"If that were true, then she should have run away from you before she caught Mono," Wolf snapped back with a toothy grin. "She doesn't know how we got back to the Lylat system, does she?"

"Mm, I was too distracted by far more detailed thoughts to have it on my mind," said the burley cat. Caruso turned back to his locker, hooking the silk shirt on the edge of the metal door, taking his dress shoes off next and switching them for the work shoes that were in his locker.

Wolf folded his arms, placing his right foot up on the bench behind the locker. "I'm considering the possibility of leaving Sargasso. It's getting a popular reputation and I like to stay just beneath radar level."

Panther smirked, keeping his expression facing away from Wolf, so that his boss couldn't see it. "Are you sure it has nothing to do with what happened on the Apparoid home world?"

"Shut your mouth," O'Donnell said, turning to bury his fist into the row of lockers behind Panther. "I don't want to hear about it again. Not from you, not from Leon. That stays in the past."

"Was it really that embarrassing?" Panther asked, reaching for a deodorant stick. His eyes cut to the corner, trying to peer back at Wolf, over his shoulder. It was probably the weirdest part of the entire mission.

"It was a goddess-forsaken hallucination, Caruso. It had something to do with The Apparoids or Pigma Dengar, but I don't care to remember that day, right now," Wolf demanded under the guise of a growl. "So don't bring it up again. I don't care what you guys saw, or what you think I said that day, I don't want to hear about it, or I'll stomp your tail so fast, your head will spin."

Panther waved his paw in a dismissive gesture, "Sure, Boss. That's fine. It never happened and you never said those things. You're the one dwelling on it, not me," Panther chided. A glint of reflection off of a rose-locket he had put up on a hook was all the notice that Panther needed to move. He dodged to the right, jerking his head to the side, to avoid Wolf's punch.

The lupine's fist left a nasty dent in the metal locker just left of Caruso's own. Panther turned to grin at him, a sly feline smirk. "Temper, temper, Boss. I didn't know the McClouds got to you, so easily."

"SHUT UP!" Wolf barked, storming off towards the rec-room. Panther rolled his eyes and put the deodorant back into his locker in silence. A soft footstep caused Caruso's ears to perk up and he knew who stood behind him, now.

"Why do you patronize him?" Leon asked, arms folded over his chest, leaning up against the row of lockers behind Caruso. The feline answered in a simple shrug.

"Do you realize what it does to the psyche of a man when someone he killed in cold blood comes back from the dead to save his life and the lives of his team mates?" Leon asked.

"Shut up, Powalski. I wasn't there, over 10 years ago; I could care less what happened. All I know is that James McCloud shows up on our monitors and guides us into a temporal distortion. We go through the wormhole, we're back home in Lylat. Do you see me _complaining_ about it?"

"You're a real fool, sometimes," Leon said, shaking his head. "Wolf may not have put the knife in McCloud's back, but he was standing there when it happened. James McCloud is the last man who should have saved O'Donnell's tail from that planet exploding. I'm not even sure if it was anything more than a hallucination, there's no log of the communication on our blackbox recorder."

"I know this, and yet we all saw him, heard him and he had a conversation with Wolf," Panther said with a shrug, "Maybe it was a ghost, stop dwelling on it... both of you."

"I'm not dwelling on it," Leon said, narrowing his eyes. "It's just unexplainable, that's all. You were there, when we fought that boss and he appeared and told us to leave. I argued with Wolf not to listen to it. The fact is," Powalski said, "If Wolf listened to me, we'd all be dead. How was I supposed to know Fox was delivering the coup de grace on the Apparoid Queen at the same time?"

"Which is fine and dandy, we survived," Panther said, shaking his head. "I can't believe you are both spooked by a ghost." He pulled the silk shirt back on, running his finger over the branded tattoo of a rose on his chest, then looked over his shoulder at the chameleon, shutting his locker. "It was a simple manifestation of the Apparoid archive. They got records from James McClouds, all sorts of memories, from Dengar. Pigma Dengar also had a work relationship with Wolf, so the Apparoids used that memory obtained by Pigma and thought to spare Wolf because ... for whatever reason. The Apparoids used the image of James McCloud to tell Wolf to leave, simple as that."

"Then we would have a communication log from an Apparoid on our black box log. Those logs are empty from the time we parted ways with StarFox," Leon explained, "until the time we went home."

Panther threw his paws into the air, "Jeeze, Leon! Static Electric Discharge from the base exploding around us, the logs didn't record properly! There's a reason for everything, stop looking for Ghosts among the grave!" With that, Panther left the room. Leon shook his head with a slight chuckle. Panther just didn't believe in the impossible.

"I love how he just brings it up to get you pissed off, but when I bring it up, it's hodgepodge," Leon said aloud.

Wolf was standing the next row of lockers over, his back up against them, looking straight down, keeping his composure cool and relaxed. "If a dead man from his first job walked up to him and told him he was forgiven for committing the murder," O'Donnell said softly, "He would be in shock, too. Screw Panther, let him use it as a means of pushing my buttons. I don't care, you knew what we saw and what's done is done." With that, Wolf pushed off the third row of lockers, heading for the door to the back entrance.

Leon headed for the shower. All this deliberation made his head hurt. It was all too strange. As young as Wolf was at the time, he was the one who carried James off the torture table and stuffed the body into a jettison pod. He was the one who blasted Fox's father through the air lock and sent him into the void with the garbage. That man was not alive and should not have been there to save StarWolf, let alone tell Wolf that he was forgiven, that Pigma was the murderer. It made Leon's headache from that night return with full force.

-

(A/N::Points to the feedback button to the lower left:_ It is your friend. Use the Force-Feedback! ...Or I'll beat you with a light saber_ :D )


	4. C4 FutureReflections

C H A P T E R _four

* * *

_

**Her idea of Volunteering was shot down**. The simple fact of the matter was that Corneria was having a wind storm, or rather, a moderate gale blowing through the Capitol city and the blizzard of ashes was not going to be easy to navigate. The weather channel noted that it would be this way for the next two days and the Government was starting to pull troops from Fortuna to assist in the rescue operations. She wouldn't have to worry as much now, anyhow.

It wasn't her planet to begin with but she was going through the paper work to become a citizen. It was her way to want to help as much as possible, but she had to learn that there were times when putting herself in danger was not the best idea. It happened on Sauria, she didn't want it to happen again.

She had proven herself on the last mission. She didn't need to be rescued. But the fact of the matter was, she was still embarrassed to have been the cliché woman in distress. Her leads on the situation over Fortuna had brought to question a way to get General Pepper to contract StarFox in helping out on the military operation. If she played her cards right, she could get militia freed up over Fortuna, which would provide more help to the needy on Corneria. And if she was smart about it, she could turn the mission into a chance to get alone with McCloud again.

The little blue vixen was restless this afternoon. Her date with Panther left a sour taste in her muzzle and she wanted to find something to do. She'd taken to walking through the Medical Ship when Slippy came up besides her. "Hey," she said, giving a soft smile.

"You look d-down, what's up?" Slippy asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I suppose I just want to do a little more. There's a lot going on, down on the surface," She said, speaking of Corneria, "and to be honest, I've been feeling a little guilty of genocide," She explained, in reference to the Apparoids.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Slippy mused, softly. He pulled his hat out of his pocket and put the red cap over his head, between those large, beady frog eyes.

"Slippy, do you think I looked like a Damsel in Distress, on the Sauria mission?"

Toad shook his head, stuffing his left hand back into his pocket. "Nah. From what I understand, you were disoriented from releasing the Krazoa spirit to it's place. The fact Andross was there, who could have known? I think he was waiting for someone to show up, he'd had it planned. You couldn't have known."

"Still," She muttered softly. "I guess I want to be known as a strong woman, who doesn't need saving."

"Once, during the war, I went to try and help Fox. I broke formation, I went up to the front of the group and you wanna know what happened?" Slippy asked, recalling back to when he was 18, "The machine that tore apart Sector X's research facility, what was I thinking? He swatted me like a fly. Next thing I know the G-Diffuser locks up, my ship goes unresponsive and I crash land on Titania."

"Oh, Slippy," Krystal said, patting his shoulder gently, "That's why we tell you not to run out into the fray, alone. There is a measure of strength in numbers. If anything, just come up, besides Fox, offer a few shots and return to the formation. It keeps backline strong and that makes Fox stronger when he's putting his life on the line."

"Well, it got worse," Slippy said with an embarrassed chuckle. Krystal raised her brows, motioning for him to continue. He shrugged then went on, adding, "I sat on Titania for about twenty-five minutes. I left the Arwing and started doing repairs to it. I wanted to be able to fly off of the planet, myself. It didn't take long to fix the external damage from being smacked by a metallic hand," he told her.

"Go on," She said, showing interest.

Slippy nodded then continued with his story. "From sitting outside the cockpit, a creature was able to detect my scent. It was a freakish biological weapon, one of the failures Andross made. It turned out to be a useless, uncontrollable beast, so the monster was dumped on Titania and forgotten. Well, it found me. I scurried back into my cockpit, as it came up from the sand. I pulled the cockpit closed and it lunged for me. When it didn't capture me, he grabbed the whole ship. Then he rose up out of the sand even more, that's when I realized he was over two stories tall."

"My goodness!" Krystal exclaimed. "How did you manage it?"

"I... didn't," Slippy paused, looking a little dejected. Like her, he was still a little sore about getting captured. It was a low blow to anyone's ego. "He g-grabbed the entire Arwing and pulled it beneath the sand. The sand clogged my intake manifold and my exhaust booster. I stalled out and when he rose above the sand again, I would try to reboot the engines and get away."

"Fox came, didn't he?" She said. Slippy couldn't determine if it was her telepathic ability or if it was just that darn obvious.

Toad nodded and continued, "He came with a land master tank. Before I could get all the way free, the monster disappeared below the sand again, but that wasn't the embarrassing part. Yeah, my engines stalled again, I had to reboot while he had to shoot the thing's hand so I could get away, but the embarrassing part was when Fox first arrived."

"Why, what happened?" She asked, as the two walked side by side, down the Medical Ship's main corridor.

"It was toying with me, while Fox got the signal. Guess Andross made this thing smarter than I realized," Slippy recalled. "It sunk beneath the sand and held just his two massive arms into the air, k-keeping my fighter from getting free, plugging my engine exhaust with a finger. I couldn't start, and he made it look like I was stuck in a strange tree. Then he jumps out at Fox, having used me as bait. Me. I was b-b-bait! Can you believe that?"

"Don't feel bad," Krystal said, patting his shoulder again, "Andross used me as bait, more than 5 times. He had Fox bring multiple Krazoa spirits and I was suspended in a huge crystalline structure, on display like the Sleeping Princess, waiting for Prince Charming to save her, because she couldn't manage it herself."

Both of them stopped in their tracks, when Peppy stepped into the hallway, facing them. Both were surprised, because he'd not been on his own two feet in over a week. His eyes passed from one to the other. With those big, long ears, he had no problem hearing their approach, down the hallway.

"Krystal, you tell the boys not to be selfish," He said. To his words, Krystal nodded in acknowledgement. Peppy smiled a bit then told them, "Don't be selfish. We all need help, sometimes. Do you think I escaped Venom by myself? James gave his life to ensure my freedom. He cared more about his team mate than for himself. Do you know why?"

"Because he's self_less_?" Slippy guessed.

"Fox?" Krystal turned to Slippy with a raised brow. "The guy who wants a retainer fee up front? James may have been selfless, though. I didn't know him."

"That's because he doesn't want to put his team into danger for nothing," Peppy explained. "That was a suggestion I gave him, in his youth. I told him to never put the lives of people on the line without a return benefit that was to their advantage."

"Then why did James do that?" Slippy asked.

"Because without a team, there is no leader," Peppy explained. "Do you remember the great book, Slippy? The Lion born of a Tigress? That Lion went to save flocks animals, because no one should forget about the needs of the one," said the aging Rabbit. "Fox isn't the Savior. He's saving his team, because without his team, who's going to save Fox? Who keeps the enemy from dominating Fox, when they get too numerous? We're his family."

Slippy nearly balked in shock. "Name one time when someone else saved Fox, making it possible for him to save the day?"

"What about the time StarWolf told Fox that they'll take the enemies, he needed to go after the Apparoid queen? They also did the same thing, helping with the missiles at the jump gate, before that happened," Peppy reminded. "Not to mention," He added with a chuckle, "The time Falco provided munitions during his fight with Andross."

"Is that all?" Slippy asked, looking to Krystal. Krystal was able to ascertain the answers, telepathically, before Peppy could say them, but let him speak, staying reverent to his lesson teaching.

"If he bought every map from Shabunga on Sauria, he wouldn't have needed my help," Peppy said, "But what about you Slippy? Where would Fox have gotten without your help on Sauria?"

"ME? What did **I** do?" Toad asked, earnestly.

"What didn't you do?" Peppy erupted in soft laughter. "You gave him the ability to get out of that prison by offering the ability to use lizard camouflage. He wound up needing it to progress throughout his mission. You gave him advice from your vantage point," Peppy reminded.

"Yes, but I was still a damsel in distress, the entire time," Krystal said with a slight shrug. "I'll get over it, don't worry."

"And Krystal." Peppy turned to her, placing his paws on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "You helped Fox on Sauria, a year later. You helped Fox on the Apparoid home planet. You use your telepathic ability to keep him from falling into a trap. And of course, Slippy and I need not remind you about the work you did on Aquais (A/N: My prequel, Reflections Of Krystal), while Fox was injured... which you kept from becoming something more fatal. You saved his life, then did a mission for him."

"He wouldn't have needed my help on either of those events if he didn't injure himself trying to save me from crashing on MeteoLand Theme Park," Krystal reminded him.

"Then it's obvious that you're simbiant. You can't live without one another, just like Fox can't live without his team," Peppy said, in an almost stern voice. "If he doesn't save you, then you're not around to save him, later. You're not putting him into danger when you require aid, but you are putting him in danger, when you're not around to help. If Falco never showed up when he was fighting Andross, he'd have been in trouble. Nothing but Nova Bombs hurt Andross' machine. GreatFox was in no shape for combat with Andross' machine, it would have been destroyed."

"I guess you're right," Slippy said with a confirming nod.

"I think you are right," Krystal told Peppy. "Without him, we're nothing. Without us, he's not a leader, he's just a man. And I think you're right, when you said we have a symbiotic relationship. I don't think we can exist without the other, anymore."

"Everything happens for a reason," Peppy said to her. "You entered his life at a point when he could no longer live it without you. You came into his life to provide support and understanding and now he needs you as much as you needed him on Sauria. If you ask me," Hare chuckled. "You need each other, you just haven't realized it, yet. It was fate for you two to meet. Now it's up to free will for you two take the next step."

Krystal looked down for a moment, then peeked back up at Peppy with a knowing smile. Slippy looked from Peppy back to Krystal, tilting his head. He wasn't always empathetic, but it wasn't difficult to see that Krystal's expression belied some matter of emotion. "What's goin' on?" Slippy asked.

"Don't tell Fox; I'll tell him when I'm ready," Krystal said softly, trying to hide a girlish smile. There were no females on the team with whom she could giggle and chitterchatter with, but her new friends would make do. "I told Peppy but now I'm letting you in on it," She said, placing her paw on Slippy's shoulder and drawing his head close. "I'm in love with Fox, I don't wanna scare him off but I'm going to make him mine, slowly but surely. Wanna help me set things up for us?"

Slippy nodded, as well as Peppy. They leaned in and there she stood, in the middle of the hallway with them. She began whispering to them what they would have to do to help set things up with her and McCloud. She was a woman with a plan. Nothing could stop her.

* * *

**Wolf O'Donnell rubbed his thumb and forefinger together; his mind locked in thought. Panther approached** from behind, eyes narrowing. "I've given some thought to the whole McCloud thing, back there," the feline casually said.

"I told you, I don't wanna hear about it," Wolf said, facing the large rectangular window, watching Panther in the slight reflection.

"If it wasn't an Apparoid intervention, then it's possible we saw Fox with sunshades on, telling us to get out, because he was going to be destroying the queen," explained Panther. "Maybe the hallucination was from being over tired."

"Look, Fox was with his team. We followed James into that the wormhole, he disappeared like a mirage," Wolf snapped, tightening his paw into a fist. "I have an optical transplant, I could see heat signature; I could see the specifications on his M-Class fighter. It's recorded in my optical implant's video feed disc. The Comm Logs might not show anything but I know what I saw and I trust _my_ instincts."

Caruso tilted his head, rubbing his chin with his left paw, in a moment of silence. Finally, he said, "It's strange but if Fox's father was alive, Fox would know and that would be that."

Leon stepped into the room, shaking his head. There Panther was, trying to bring this subject up again. "Maybe something about the memory of James McCloud was so pure," Powalski began, "That the Apparoid reenactment of him tried to do something honorable?"

"No, the Apparoids aren't acting out James McCloud, they were using his image and voice to speak their behalf," Wolf said. "There was no Apparoid, I saw an M-Class fighter. Inside was James McCloud, so shut up, both of you."

Leon shook his head, poking Panther in the shoulder. He jerked his hand the other direction, making a motion to leave Wolf alone. Panther smirked, heading for the door. "He was a damn Ghost. For you guys to be this spooked, I have to wonder about the both of you. Ghosts are ghosts. It's not a big deal," He said with a firm, calm voice, passing through the door.

Leon shook his head, offering nothing more than a sigh. Wolf turned, looking over his shoulder. "I don't know if my optical implant would have seen a ghost. They're not made up of matter."

"Can you see anti matter?" Leon inquired, slowly making his own way for the door.

"I don't know. Make sure Panther knows that this is to be a forgotten issue." Wolf looked back to the window, then added, "When the time comes to act, I did. We're here. That's all that matters. IF he keeps kicking a dead horse, I'm going to be kicking a dead cat. But I know what I saw and that's the bottom line. This topic is over."

Leon's eyes flitted from O'Donnell to the floor. He headed for the door, shutting it behind himself. Wolf, on the other hand, folded his paws across his chest, musing aloud, "If that little blue thing really is telepathic, I wonder if she sensed the presence of James McCloud that day. I wonder if Fox saw him." In reality, Wolf was proud of Fox. The boy acted when the time came. Everyone got out alive. Now it was back to Wolf and Fox, they've come full circle and it was time to tan the pup's tail. Their alliance was over.

* * *

**There was a noise at the door. Fox glanced up**, seeing Peppy in the doorway. The pilot's face lit up, waving the old timer into his room. He crossed the living room to greet his father's best friend, half way.

"So your physical therapy is doing well?" McCloud asked, approaching the Hare, patting the man on his shoulder. The Rabbit gave a subtle grin, nodding in reply. "So what brings ya by, Pep?"

"I thought I would come by and we could talk about the birds and the bees, Fox." Peppy kept a straight face but Fox shook his head with soft laughter. He was about to turn twenty-eight in a short time. The last thing he needed to learn about was romance.

"Well, go ahead, Doctor Hare," McCloud joked. He wasn't as shy talking about women in front of Peppy. The older rabbit patted Fox's shoulder, motioning to the Sofa. He was an elder sort of man and Fox treated him like a foster father, or maybe a favorite uncle. The young McCloud didn't feel embarrassed to talk around Peppy because the two shared a pretty open family-relationship, growing up. Fox could easily ask about advice on girls, although he rarely dated as a kid.

"It's like this, Fox," Peppy said, sitting down on the lounge chair. Fox hopped onto the sofa, putting his feet up, acting as if he were a psychology patient, showing a measure of good humor.

"Go on, Doc."

Peppy chuckled, giving a light tug at the knee of his trousers, getting comfortable. "Anything keeping you back from dating Krystal?" He tilted his head and after a thoughtful pause, added, "Just curious, she's quite an interesting woman. Smart, attractive?"

"I definitely want to start something with her, but you know," Fox chuckled awkwardly. Peppy motioned for him to continue. "Well," McCloud said, trailing off for a second, to get his thoughts together, "It's like this, Peppy. At first, the Venom political stress was an issue. We were training. I had to keep my hormones in check. I guess it's safe to say we can do something with this, now. I just didn't want it to interfere with work. If she died during a Venom attack, I wouldn't have forgiven myself. Strange that the War lasted a few hours, thanks to the Apparoid attack."

"Well, it's safe to say, Fox, that the aggression is over. Why not take a vacation while Slippy and I sort out securing a new GreatFox replacement?" Peppy leaned forward on the chair, folding his arms across his chest. He lifted his right paw up, for a moment, fixing his glasses, then tucked his paw back into the folded arms across his torso.

"I guess it could be interesting," Fox said with a shrug. "How does one go about just saying, 'Hey Krys, want to go on a date?' She'd probably look at me strange. Actually, I rescind that; she'd probably already know my intent upon approach. It'd be easier if we had the chance to hang out together, see if it fell into place."

"She and you stayed together at the LunarStone Hotel in Corneria, a while back, remember that?" Peppy recalled.

"Uhm, yeah," Fox said, remembering when she put his tail on the floor in a spar. "Why do you ask?"

"You weren't awkward about those sleeping arrangements, why not get some camping gear together, spend some time on Sauria; Corneria's not a very good vacation spot, neither is Zoness," Peppy reminded the vulpine. Fox nodded in agreement, sitting up on the sofa.

"I think I'm not ready to ask her out of the blue. I was thinking," Fox glanced, furtively around the room, redirecting his gaze on the elder Hare. "Maybe we could go do some light work, together. Escort, something. Just … I don't know."

"I had a feeling you'd say that." Peppy grinned. Krystal had that idea, as well. This plan was going perfectly. Peppy leaned forward and patted McCloud on his knee. "But fate coincidentally offered you that very chance. You know the stress of pulling military back from Fortuna? Now they're out numbered. Half the personnel on site are pilots that were reassigned after the venom war ended. They're getting their tails handed to them, on the ground." Peppyer leaned back in the chair, adding, "If we can pull a stunt on the planet, the hostilities may end and that leaves more troops to go home and help with the Corneria Crisis."

That was the clever media title that was being used on news stations on the fortunate planets that weren't decimated. "Cornerian Crisis" had become the title at the bottom of the screen for all coverage on Corneria getting leveled at the beginning of last week.

"Want me to head down there with a tank and clear a few things up, StarFox Style?" Fox asked with a half grin, referring to their aggressive offensive tactics.

"You and Krystal, both," Peppy said.

"How did you find out about this, did Pepper call us and no one told me?" Fox asked, looking confused.

Peppy grinned. Krystal had learned that Pepper was coming onboard the Medical Ship this afternoon and she'd already known that part of his visit was going to be directed towards a meeting with StarFox. His plan was to gently beg them to send a small ground team to Fortuna to hit the Venom troops from behind, without them detecting the mercenary unit. "Well Fox, Krystal seems to think Pepper's going to be asking us to send in a small team that won't be noticed. It would be quiet, small and no one would notice you guys mounting an aggressive offensive from behind, know what I mean?"

If someone was to believe that Krystal sensed the whole thing, great. If someone found out that she had it set up, she could always bat her eyelashes and change the subject or something. The way it all went down was brilliant, it got StarFox another job, towards the massive payment that would be required on a new GreatFox. It also got Fox and Krystal side-by-side on a mission that would be a bit more personal, in working together.

The fact was, Slippy went to visit his dad. He got information on the situation on Fortuna and made sure to visit Pepper in his office, on the way to Beltino's office in the same building. The offer of a two man mission for a discounted price was delivered to Pepper. The General, fresh from the hospital on temporary leave, told Slippy that he would be fine with that. He explained that the situation was bad and to keep StarFox's mission on 'unofficial channels', a fancy term for denying their involvement.

He would pay them later, but knowing their help was necessary, he wanted to make a deal to get StarFox involved on such a small scale that no one else would notice. Especially not the Cornerian Government, since he wasn't in a place to officially hire them at the moment. But he could do something more important for them; he could get them a military discount on their new ship.

Pepper arranged to have his medical condition reevaluated on the Flagship Medical carrier today, so that he could officially get a second opinion on staying on active duty. He knew he wouldn't, but the transfer would give him a chance to personally meet with StarFox and give their unofficial mission a green light. Krystal and Slippy arranged for the entire situation.

The simple truth was that Krystal wanted to make a difference by putting more Fortuna stationed soldiers back on Corneria. By doing a good clean up job on Fortuna, they would be freed up to go home and help Cornerians after this massive catastrophic situation. With Slippy's help, she had set up getting StarFox work and getting her and McCloud alone.

Peppy was in on the idea, because he wanted to see McCloud happy. Falco wasn't in on the plan, but it wasn't necessary to have too many 'cooks' in the 'kitchen'. The 'dish' had to be perfect and now that it was about to be set up, she knew that their time alone would give them a chance to talk.

* * *

_Fortuna, several miles outside of the recently deserted Venom Base._

**The lush jungle region melted into asphalt and metal**. The sparkling river that ran through the tropical region near the equator of Planet Fortuna, ended at a large metallic section, that acted as an irrigation trench, providing water to the base. While the base was still covered in debris and ruined war vehicles from the StarFox assault, early in the Venom/Cornerian War, it was empty and silent.

Several miles from the base, further downstream, the river bed ran alongside a mining facility. This mine provided the fresh metals for the late Emperor Oikonni the Second, so that he could build this base. There was only one problem...

Something dangerous in the mines. Everyone wondered why Venom's forces disappeared during the Apparoid Invasion. No one knew why; it was never questioned.

Workers who have been building this base for nearly 6 months in advance to the War, were falling ill and some were rapidly beginning to expire from some mysterious illness. The very first of the Cornerian Soldiers, from the earliest arriving batallion, were now beginning to show signs of respiratory and nasal congestion. No one thought anything of it. Yet.

* * *

_Next chapter: c5- Epidemic Insurrection_

A/N: _from after chapter 3, I actually start to get away from the "what if's" of post ASSAULT. I go into an original direction and have the desire to bring you a story of peril laced with the romance that everyone is waiting for. Fox and Krystal. I promise to deliever with it. I promise it'll be good and gooey with lots of sappy romance and make it dripping with love-doveyness. So stay tuned, mortals _:D

-ken


	5. C5 FutureReflections

A/N: _Yes, all Fox's dreams have relevance for once ; You won't see for a few chapters, but I wrote 3 of them tonight, so.. !yAy! I'll put up 5 and 6 tonight... and wait until tomorrow night or the next morning to put up 7, so that the story doesn't get lost down the list on the main page. O-o__;; I'm getting to that sappy romance. It doesn't start until the end of next chapter tho! sorry! n-n; Pick out the weird parts of the first part of this chapter. They're weird on purpose... who has a combustion engine in a world of plasma engines? You'll see muwahaha._

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* * *

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C H A P T E R _five_

**Fox hadn't been on a mission with Krystal since the Apparoid home planet**. His eyes fluttered shut while his mind subconsciously guided his body to the flight deck. He could recall every little detail. It roared back to him as if it were a moment of reality.

_"**This is Krystal; the mission is going as planned**." Her words were confidently spoken, as the purple name indicator above her position streaked by on the holographic glass canopy of the Arwing. Fox could see every enemy highlighted through the heads up display built into the cockpit glass. Another charged shot was launched, pulverizing the enemies on the exterior of the base. Down below, half a dozen Apparoids exploded. The vaporized enemies faded from his sensor display. _

_Fox punched the thrusters, leaving the shielding plates behind. Peppy's voice interjected over the communications patch. "If you eject from there, your streak will be over, Fox!" McCloud glanced downwards, seeing the abyss that was surely a lethal fall from this altitude, to the planet's surface below. Because so many Apparoids were half organic, there was breathable air on the planet's surface. _

_Fox looped about once more, coming to land adjacent to the Land Master Tank. He switched vehicles, clamoring from the cockpit of his fighter and dashing across the glass-like field, to his tank. Upon starting the engines, he punched the boost, heading for Krystal's location. _

_"This base is so complex!" She mused in thought. Beneath her visual, on the communication readout, it showed her vitals. She was obviously injured, but she wasn't finished yet. To accentuate the fact, she added, "There's no way I'm going to be beaten on a place like this!" She was obviously surrounded. The Land Master broke into the field in which she stood, opening fire on the massive Apparoid that was assimilated from a large animal from another galaxy. _

_Within moments, the large beast surrendered to Fox McCloud's aggressive volley of cannon fire. Rolling to a stop besides the blue Vixen, Fox pointed the cannon at her, but she was quick to scold. "Hey… stop joking around," She mused, shaking her head. Fox ejected himself from the Tank, leaving it for her. "Don't worry about me," She told him, "Find the other targets!" Fox nodded in reply, dropping to the ground and taking off. _

_He had to secure better weapons to finish this task. Several of the Apparoids had already secured the ground kit that ROB64 had air dropped. Using his blaster, at its third level of power-up, he opened fire on the nearest set of enemies on the field, heading towards one of the large, glassy looking purple tinted buildings. _

_One of the Apparoids exploded on contact, leaving in its wake a large red tube. The Rocket Launcher was procured, being slung over his shoulder. Fox used it to clear the glowing red doors and dashed through the entrance. Emerald, incandescent walls illuminated the hallway. Within the grand opening at the end of the twisty corridor, there were more Apparoids than he cared to fight. _

_McCloud re-shouldered the rocket launcher, sending a barrage of rockets into the area. Spotting a hatcher, he laid waste to it, but when the smoke cleared, it still remained. Exasperated, he opened a frequency on the channel. "Hey! I'm not doing any damage to the hatchers! What gives?" _

_Peppy replied on the same frequency, "You've GOT to find one of the shield generators! Only then can you destroy the hatchers! Find those generators!" Fox darted through the room, narrowly avoiding a shower of gunfire. He jumped, hoping there would be something to stop his fall. _

_The staircase-like ramps on either end of the room were avoided and he continued to plummet. Due to light gravity because of the planet's low mass, when he finally touched the ground, two stories down, he was completely uninjured. Counting the blessings offered, the vulpine pilot continued in his sprint, firing another rocket into the shielding generator in the corner of the lower room. It exploded in a flash, vaporizing. Within the disintegrated remains, there was a small yellow sphere. _

_Fox snatched up the Grenade with a smirk, throwing it at the wall. It bounced off, landing somewhere behind him, but he wasn't about to stick around and see what happened. McCloud quickly headed up the next set of ramps, until he was on the top floor once more, using another grenade to destroy the hatcher. "Target destroyed!"_

_"Great job, so far!" Peppy exclaimed. "One down, keep it up!" _

_"You're not going to get any help from us on this one," Falco crowed from his position high above. Safe in his cockpit pilot seat, the falcon continued to lay down aerial devastation the only way he knew how. _

_"Everything is good, in the sky," Slippy said, next. Fox dashed back out of the first corner building, leaving the smoldering remains behind. Krystal was standing besides the tank, where he'd left her. A grin danced over his muzzle, his eyes flitting over those curvaceous hips, raking over her form for a moment. _

_In that brief moment of passing, their eyes locked. Both of them allowed their wondering eyes to explore the other vulpine and both of them glanced over their shoulder to check out the other one's backside, upon passing as they headed in different directions. _

_"If you fall from here, Krystal, you're done for," Fox said to her, as they passed. He said this so that she might think he was keeping a professional frame of mind, but really, he just didn't want to draw attention to the fact that he was gazing at her. Fox passed the girl, crossing the field and disappeared into the next building of Apparoids. Krystal simply licked her lips, hefting up a gatling gun to finish the job. _

_As he dashed through the area, the floor became a translucent purple, leaving hexagonal flashes of light beneath each footstep. Fox glanced down, noting the flashy fluctuation beneath him, but continued on, staying sharp. It was a pain in the tail to find all the shield generators and hatchers but the real problem was avoiding the Apparoids' attack. That's when he approached the Generation2 Land Master, sitting majestically in the open area, ready for combat...

* * *

_

**The rumble of the New Land Master's engines** brought the slightest tinge of a grin to Fox's muzzle. It was a powerful machine, with a powerful sound to it. It was like a boat motor, throbbing and pulsing in each of 24 fabulous cylinders. Each piston pumped in rhythmic bliss. It purred in a deep rumbling sort of cadence.

Duel inline twelve cylinder engines that provided an unparallel Ten Thousand Horse-Power output caused the new Land Master's design to be different than the old one. It was a V24-Small Block engine that filled out the middle section, causing the cockpit to be further forward and slightly more elevated. In fact, this cockpit was actually a swivel style turret area, with the gun attached to it that allowed for 360 degree motion. It didn't stop there. The Engine ran on Arwing fuel cells and the exhaust, much like hydrogen power, was more or less just water. This new system allowed for the tank to take the place of the Blue Marine as an amphibious assault vehicle.

Inside the cockpit, Fox allowed his fingertips to dance over the virtual controls, changing the airflow regulator, so that the engine's guttural purr became nearly non-existent. The fact of the matter was simple. They had to keep it quiet and hit the Venom fortress from behind. They were holding out as long as they could, from what the progress analysis report showed. His reverie of the past was broken as his copilot approached.

Fox reached a paw upwards, taking the feathery-soft blue paw and helping Krystal down into the cockpit. She sank into the back seat, facing opposite of McCloud's pilot seat. The chairs were back to back, so that she could operate a turret out of the back of the tank. This new machine became Fox's immediate replacement for the old model of Land Master.

This tank was a third generation model of Land Master. The first one, used during the Lylat Wars, ran on tank treads, with a solid chasse. The multiple section chassis of the second generation Land Master was a solid platform, but the large four tires gave it a high center of gravity and the swivel gun turret wasn't as responsive as it could have been. While the second generation's gun turret was far better than the first, this _new_ model was simply amazing.

With the same size tires as the second generation of Land Master, this one sat lower, with the axels raised on the body, so that the tires came up on either side of it, which allowed it to operate upside-down, if necessary. The belly was covered in nearly impenetrable armor, so that when the tank was inverted, even though the cockpit would be only inches from the ground, the tank became invulnerable to an air strike.

The swivel turret now rotated 360 degrees, and had a computerized sensor called 'smart lock'. This kept the barrel pointed forward-only, during an inverted driving situation. The rotating turret elevated, during normal operation, so that the barrel would never brush the top of the massive tires, when shooting at level objects.

Once Krystal was secure in her gunnery-turret seat, Fox reached up and pulled the canopy shut, locking it with the twist of a latch. There was a momentary hiss of air and for a very brief moment, the interior of the cockpit smelled stale. Condensation on the side of a water bottle in a cup holder seemed to dry up on the side of the plastic, due to that momentary change in atmosphere.

Fox turned his attention away from the strange effect of the water droplets on the side of his water bottle, immediately punching in the drop-zone coordinates. He rolled the tank to the edge of the Medical Ship's flight bay and cleared his throat. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," She replied. Fox tapped the thrust and the tank boosted forward, coming into open space. The seatbelt kept the two vulpine pilots pinned to their seat, but the simple fact that they were above the planet's atmosphere became the explanation for Krystal's bangs hovering up to some extent and a pen that was sitting on the dashboard also began to float.

Perhaps in a fit of playfulness, Fox gave the water bottle a squeeze so that a circular glob of water now floated upwards. He leaned forward in the seat, capturing the floating circle-shaped mass with his muzzle, and then reached his paw back to the bottle, twisting the spout.

The tank began to descend into the atmosphere. A scarlet glow consumed the tank as it plummeted through Fortuna's atmospheric ceiling, breaking into the stratosphere, approaching a terminal velocity. The sanguine trail of fire reached out like a tail, behind the tank, which headed for the ground at an ominous speed.

As it broke through the clouds, the crimson ball of heat dissipated. Any condensation that _would_ have collected in droplets on the interior of the canopy became consumed by the special atmospheric conditions and the moister-sensing glass of which the canopy was constructed. Fox's gaze lowered to an altitude display, which neared 30,000 feet. Once they broke twenty-two thousand feet, Fox pressed a button on the far left side of the control panel.

A tarp erupted from the tank's hull, covering their craft. It was a very light blue on the outside, resembling the sky with its cast of light clouds, and on the inside, it was a stark green. The side that faced Fox, inwardly, was the color of grass and ground. Once the tank reached twelve thousand feet, he popped the anti-gravity sail.

The metallic flap opened with a loud, 'shunk!' sound. The tank's descent slowed and he tapped the boosters on the belly, which also helped to slow the fall. The light blue tarp on the outside was a day-drop camouflage and once they neared less than five thousand feet, Fox began punching buttons again.

The tank's tarp began to unfasten from the very top of the hull. Nearing a thousand feet, Fox tapped the hover thrusters, slowing the tank's fall even further. He mashed down the button, waiting for it to slow to a near hover. Finally, the Land Master's altimeter reading displayed one hundred feet. Fox closed the antigravity flap and allowed the hovering boosters to do their jobs. Finally, the Tank was less than ten feet off the ground.

Once he lowered it to the wheels, he popped the tarp, so that the sky-blue side was lying face down and the lush green and brown side was facing upwards. It mixed in with the colors of the ground, making it difficult to see where they landed, from afar. It was the perfected duel-sided camouflage. Once the clips from the canvas were released from their places on the hull of the tank, Fox eased into the clutch, shifting it into gear.

It was time to roll out.

Fox reached to his right, tapping a blue key on the console. Immediately, an image of a tired looking General Pepper showed over the Holo-Emitters that were built into the center dash. His transparent image didn't hinder Fox's view very much, which was kind of nice.

"We're here. The invasion begins at midnight, Sir," Fox said. His gaze cut through John Pepper with a 50-yard stare, but it was so he could pay attention to the terrain.

Pepper, who was technically still off duty from his recuperation instructions, nodded with a smile. He looked pleased. "That's great news Fox!" His tone had lost the edge he'd spoken with for the last year. It was more reminiscent of the days leading up to the Dinosaur Planet mission. Pepper looked damn tired but it was good to hear him in high spirits again, especially with the huge fiasco on Corneria's surface right now with trying to rescue all the survivors. "Make sure you set up a base camp and rest before the attack. Contact me if there are any problems, Pepper out!"

The transmission ended and Pepper's visage sort of faded from existence. Fox taped a red button on the right side of the dash, and now a translucent map showed up at the bottom of the windshield. With a simple key tapping, Fox zoomed out, to show where they were in relation to where the Venom base was located.

"We're one hundred miles from this base," Fox mused aloud. "If we make camp 60 miles from the base, then leave for the mission at about 2100 hours. That gives us 3 hours to make the target by midnight."

"But won't we be early?" Krystal asked.

"No, we'll _have_ to leave 3 hours early," Fox explained, telling her, "We're going to be taking out security and outposts on the way. It's going to be a hard fight if we want to hit them so hard and fast that they don't see us coming."

"These outposts," Krystal inquired, "Are we sure that it's best to hit them hard with a tank, or is that not the plan?"

Fox shook his head and said, "There are two outposts. We sneak up, dismount and go in on foot. They've got a compliment of about 15 men; twenty at best. We install a disc Slippy gave me, onto their computer. He'll ensure that the base functions automatically with this virus program. That will ensure the main Venom facility won't be alerted that something is wrong."

"Krystal nodded, gazing about the area. In her rear-view scope, she could see the gray mountains of Fortuna and thought out loud, "What's in those mountains?"

"Hm," Fox replied with a chuckle. "There's a Cornerian base there; we ran into StarWolf there, during the war… almost a decade ago. I had to defuse a bomb in the base because it was a Para-military science facility. Those particular scientists didn't know demolitions."

"Wow, must have been exciting!" Krystal exclaimed, leaning forward to take a look at the mountains in the distance, once more.

"It's hard to explain," Fox noted. "I went in there and there was less than 20 seconds on the timer. With no options or tools and no time to take the casing apart, I snatched it up, ran down to the lab and tossed it into a Liquid Nitrogen tank. The thing is," he recalled with a frown, "I'm cool under pressure but my nerves were giving me the adrenaline-shakes after everything calmed down. We pulled the bomb back out and the timer was on '2' seconds."

"The Liquid Nitrogen froze the electronics?" She asked.

"I don't know if it did or not," Fox admitted with a lopsided grin, "But the triggering device didn't strike the detonator coil. It was a miniature low-yield nuclear device. It was designed to shoot a small piece of uranium into a chunk of plutonium or the other way around. I don't remember which is which. But Slippy's dad was brought in to actually disarm it, later on."

"Mister Toad seems to be quite a handyman," Krystal replied, leaning back in her seat to get comfortable.

Fox nodded, even though she was facing away from him. He couldn't say enough good things about his childhood friend's dad. "Beltino was actually a laboratory apprentice for Doctor Andross Oikonni, before that jerk was banished from Corneria. Once the Doc decided to confide his work to a helper or two, Beltino realized first hand just what kinds of crazy experiments were being conducted."

"Bio weapons?" Krystal asked softly. She was so close to finding the confirming answers to her questions of what happened to Cerinia but without having her paws on Doctor Andross' field notes, she'd never know for sure.

"Bio Weapons, Gravity Bombs, genetically enhanced clones; you name it." Fox paused then added, "The reason Dad jumped at the thought of attacking Venom was because Cornerian Spies claimed to witness seeing my mother, alive."

"She was a clone?" Krystal asked, not quite able to determine the answer from his thoughts, due to his mind running all over the subject with vibrant memories.

"She was a bio-weapon," Fox retorted in anger. "She was supposed to be an assassin and that's why Dad and his team left in the first place. But," Fox paused then shrugged. "She didn't exist. It was just a rumor. Pigma most likely had a contact that made the whole thing up, so that he could get dad out there, so that he could personally deliver my father and Peppy."

"He's a geneticist, too?" Krystal implored, wondering if that's where the bio-weapon experiments came from, more or less. Fox beseeched her for an explanation which she was only to happy to give, adding, "You think he used his knowledge of genetics to make these rumored monsters?"

"Oh they're not rumors," Fox countered. "We fought them on Aquais, on Sol, and even a reject monster on Titania."

"Entreat me, Fox. I've been searching for details on this man," She said. "I want to know if he really did put that freakish being on our system's star. Cerinia was doomed because our Star collapsed then after three days in the immense cold, some of our science and exploration people went on a trip for answers. I one of them," She explained.

"So that means there are other survivors out there, right Krystal?" Fox's enthusiasm wasn't to be returned.

"No, Fox. It's… possible, but highly unlikely," She explained. "I can't be sure and while nothing is impossible, I've already ruled it out, because I can't live on the possibility of false hopes forever. But I'm happy here," She told him.

"So what happened to the science and research team, besides yourself?" asked McCloud.

"Most of them wanted to survey the collapsed star. We assumed that the core may have stopped spinning, but no one could have known that its nuclear fuel was spent," She mused softly. "Our scientists had documented our star to be of a certain age, with lots of life left in it. It's now assumed that the creature on that sun was living off of the star's energy fuel."

"Did they … get attacked by the monster?" Fox asked, somewhat pensively.

"No, worse…" she trailed off for a moment then signed. "I was curious to follow the trail of Andross, leaving the system. He was far ahead but I still pursued. Then the unthinkable happened, Fox." Her eyes shut for a moment, trying to remain stoic but it was an emotional, traumatic event for her to witness. "I was at the edge of our system, when our Star went supernova. The eruption annihilated Cerinia. The explosion swallowed up my world and in the end," She had to stop for a moment.

Fox was no telepathic man, but he could tell she was growing upset. He pressed a button on the dash to activate the autopilot, quickly unfastening his seatbelt. There was little room on either side of the chair, but there were rotational controls, which he utilized right away. The two chairs swiveled about, facing one another. He couldn't bare(bear? Meh, stupid MS Word says to put 'bear' here Oo;) to see her tears.

She continued, "In the end, two planets at the edge of the system lost their orbital tracks without gravity. They drew to one another, colliding. There was another massive explosion and a girl who was on the same exploration mission as myself, was swallowed in it. Her ship vaporized." Her eyes fluttered shut, with tears on her lashes, like dew drops on a flower petal. "Her name was Emery Jasmin," Krystal replied reverently.

"She…had a last name?" Fox inquired politely.

"She was from the southern hemisphere. They used surnames in their culture. Our planet was very complex. We had subcultures and four written and five spoken languages. I was a linguist, so I had to learn them all," She elucidated, detailing her past occupation with an awkward nod. "To clarify, Fox, when our… _My_ race, was learning and experiencing trade and knowledge sharing with other alien races, it was the job of people like me to interpret for both parties and actually translate the conversation to each side. That's how I was able to speak in Saurian tongue as well as speak to you in Cornerian."

"I'm impressed," McCloud told her, reaching a paw up to brush away the tears from the corner of her eye. That tiny liquid orb ran down his fingertip, rolling into his palm. Both their eyes lowered to that minuscule object at the center of his paw.

"My culture…. The ways of my people," She paused, keeping her gaze on that tiny teardrop, "It's infinitesimal, Fox. I may very well be the last of my kind. The memory of what we were, our history and our galactic contribution to existence is now as trivial as that teardrop," Krystal told him, beginning to lift her gaze.

Once more, their gaze met, and he shook his head slowly. He felt so sorry that she'd suffered in a way he could never fathom, and yet, he respected her strength. The pilot leaned forward and she gravitated towards him, at the same leisurely pace. Her sparkling eyes lowered, her eyelids fluttered shut. Once their noses were but inches apart, her lips begin to part in anticipation of a kiss…

…That never happened. Her eyes flickered open as his ears perked. A proximity warning screeched in violent protest, demanding immediate attention. The computer began to automatically rotate his piloting seat, which forced him to turn away from her, forcing them to bend to its will. The now-frustrated pilot narrowed his eyes to see what could possibly be wrong.

That sea-green gaze immediately widened. "Oh sh-…" Fox became interrupted by an abrupt new thought. His reflexes helped to make a spontaneous decision. There was a supply convoy of boats in a river up ahead but the tank was nearing a sudden drop into a water-filled canyon. He didn't have time to reach for his seatbelt. His paws went for the hover booster controls but the initial drop caused him to feel weightless.

The river ran through the canyon and far below, Fox could see the supply convoy floating along the tributary. The tank plummeted through the air, landing in the river with a massive splash. Krystal could sense his distress from the weightless feeling and reached forward, throwing her arms around the chair, clutching at his chest, to keep him pinned in the seat.

The Venom supply procession was now quite aware of Fox's position and began dropping depth charges over the side, into the water. Without any warning, one of them erupted, causing a massive underwater concussion. The shockwave slammed into the Tank. The pressure behind the aquatic tremor caused a convulsion of the tank, shaking its occupants violently.

Fox quickly went for his seatbelt, pulling it secure about his body. The tank jolted again from another detonation nearby. The Land Master sank deeper into the river until it landed on the riverbed, upon its side. Fox rotated the main cannon, targeting the lead ship from beneath.

A blast lanced out, ripping into the bottom side of the boat. Up on the surface, the charged shot burst out through the top of the ship, piercing the night sky. The massive metallic incision caused water to bubble up. The ship abruptly began to sink, while the next ship in line slammed into the backside of the frontrunner's hull.

Fox cycled through the cannon options, from 'spray' options to 'rapid fire' options to 'armor penetrating' modes, to 'explosive projectile'. Choosing the option, Fox noted a perfunctory sort of motorized noise. A small green light flashed on the dash to indicate he was ready. Once again, Fox opened fire.

Elongated metal cylinders erupted from the cannon, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake. It slammed into the second ship in the fleet's line, then Fox quickly shut his eyes. There was a bright flash, followed by underwater distortion that made it difficult to determine the details of the detonation.

The Nova Bomb that had been fired caused the second ship to erupt into a fiery display that would surely shock the next three supply boats in the line. McCloud had no time to waste. If he didn't destroy these last three boats without delay, the outposts would be warned and ultimately, so would the Venom Base.

Fox punched the boost, causing the tank to roll over, onto its wheels. He changed the settings on the computer, altering the travel mode to aquatic. Using the thrust controls, the Land Master jumped forward; the nose began to lift, heading for the middle ship of 5. There were only 4 Nova Bombs left, so he couldn't go wasting them. He cycled back through the offensive options, going for the good ole' charge beam again.

Another depth charge splashed into the river, heading for the Land Master. Fox shot it, as soon as he saw it enter the water. The barrel exploded, rupturing the side of that particular ship. Two left. He eased off the throttle, letting the river-current take the tank the opposite direction, which caused the fourth boat to line up into his sights almost immediately.

A charged blast-shot ripped into the bottom of the fourth boat, blasting through the engines in the lower rear section of the ship. The fuel tanks burst from the blaster discharge, causing the fourth boat to roar into flames, beginning to sink as well.

Finally, the final ship. Fox lifted the cannon, opening fire, but two more depth charges found their way into the water, from either side of the vessel. Fox managed to shoot one of them, but the other continued to sink into the river depths, until it slammed into the Land Master's hull, but continued to sink for another moment until it was at the proper depth, exploding. Fox thought for sure that the depth charge would rupture the Tank, but it didn't.

The first depth charge exploded in a huge flash, taking out the fifth ship, but the second one had sunk quite a ways before Fox make a decision. It exploded, knocking some of the tank's secondary systems off line. While Fox's attack was successful, sinking five ships from beneath the water surface, he also had to worry about the sudden system blank out.

The computer began a rebooting sequence but it struggled to do so. Fox squinted through the windshield, noting little shiny objects in the water. Chafe shards. Metallic objects with magnetic abilities that were designed to throw electronic systems off line. The tank began to sink once more. Fox simply cursed his luck, letting Krystal watch from behind.

Water began to pour in through a new crack in the hull, surrounding their feet, but Fox was too concerned about the situation itself, to worry about the feeling of water at his ankles. Perhaps his shoes were too water tight to realize the sensation of wetness, but he wasn't even paying attention to it. He tried to think of a good solution but his quick resourceful mind abandoned him.

"All right, we've got to find a way to break the surface, the water pressure isn't good for the cracked hull," He said to her.

"We could release the ordinance and use the blast to propel us upwards, while turning the internal heater on, because hot air floats doesn't it?" Krystal suggested. It was a better idea than anything he could think of and he wondered how she came up with it so quickly but a reassuring smile was the reply.

Suddenly, the canopy began to crack slightly. Condensation began to appear on the interior of the windshield but it came up with a sort of interesting pattern. The thicker it became, the more he realized it was forming letters on the glass. His mind raced for an explanation, coming up with some sort of possible theory about how the water was clinging to someone's fingerprint doodling on the window that must have happened some time ago.

He couldn't exactly read it, but he could tell that it said, "Stay Away From Fortuna." His brow quirked, turning to Krystal who sat behind him. "What's going on? There's... some sort of message on the windshield, it says to stay away from this planet, do you sense anything?"

Krystal frowned, unbuckling her seat belt and turning about to face him. She rested her right arm along the back rest of the chair, kneeling up in it to face him. "Wake up, Fox. We're going to die on this planet if you don't wake up and snap out of it."

And as if Krystal's words were some sort of command, he woke up. Not to the situation. Not to the realization that he had to act. But to his bedroom. It was nearly 6pm by Cornerian Standard Capitol time. It was early morning on the part of Fortuna where their mission was to be, but he shook his head to try and clear it.

"What the hell was that all about?" He blinked, startled that he'd asked the question out loud. After a moment, he tried to clear the confusion with logic. "Seven times four is twenty-eight, nine times four is thirty-six. Seven times eight is fifty-six. All right, I'm definitely awake," He said aloud. Good enough for him, he started to get dressed and ready for his mission.

As he buttoned the last fastening of his shirt, the door to his quarters slid open and Krystal walked in. She usually knocked but this time, a look of urgency was upon her face. "We've got to talk, Fox."

"Krystal, hey! I just had the weirdest dream about us. It started with the new Land Master, but it had original style internal combustion engines, and got weirder from there," he explained.

"I can't explain that part of it, but I can explain the message on the window," she said. It caused Fox's brows to rise. "Yes, it was me, from the next room over. We have a problem, Fox. I sensed incredible distress and this time, it wasn't from the Cornerian forces... it was from the Venom forces."

"Can you sense any details?" Fox asked her. She shook her head now and frowned. Fox finally shrugged. "We've got a mission. And it's one that will be together. And anything that makes life difficult for the Venom troops makes life easier for us," He said. She gave a slight grin, nodding to his words.

"You're right, Fox. Are you ready?" She approached him, placing a paw on his muzzle. He would have blushed if he could, but offered a slow nod instead. She leaned to kiss the tip of his nose. "Then may Luck's Paw be with us. Let's go, team leader." In the dim illumination of his living room, he could see the sparkle in her eyes and it caused his heart to skip a beat. Another nod offered but speech had already escaped his breath.

She kept her gaze locked with his own a moment more, then turned to head for the door. He quickly fell into step behind her, and the two headed for the flight deck. The third generation of Land Master was there and nothing like it was in his dream. The sleek Land, Amphibious, Night/Day, or L.A.N.D. Master tank, as it was known by its new third-generation acronym sat on the deck with a slight resemblance to the external design that was in his dream. It held the capability to invert for surviving an aerial attack and it was able to drive while submerged, but it was far sleeker and didn't run on internal combustion so therefore it didn't have that sweet engine sound, let alone nearly any sound at all.

Stealth was the key to this tank. It had the aggressive gull of a powerful tank. It could devastate a ground patrol, with ease. But it had the sleek curves and specially designed computer technology to remain nearly undetectable by night or in dark areas, like the water or forest.

Fox climbed up the front of it, opening the cockpit, then casting a glance around the small hanger of the medical ship. It was larger in his dream. His eyes returned to Krystal. From his position atop the tank, he could see down the front of her shirt and cast an embarrassed grin, trying not to think about it, so she didn't know.

But when it came to women, they were very intelligent. She knew he'd get that little visual and while it wasn't meant to be a trampy act, it was definitely meant to appeal to his masculinity. His face flushed, although difficult to see it through the fur. He helped her up into the tank and she slid down into a back seat which had a turret.

* * *

**Once they landed upon the planet**, it wasn't as far from the base and it was a very dead drop point. The long range sensors picked up zero bio-signs in the immediate area, leaving Fox to feel suspicious. While the camp idea was to wait until nightfall, by 10am Fox was close enough to the base that his sensor readings caused him to grow curious. 

"Can you sense anyone in the area?" Fox asked her.

"Oddly, I cannot. I sense distress but it's very faint," She replied, uncomfortably shifting her weight in the chair. Something didn't sit right in this area. Something was bothering her and yet she couldn't seem to pinpoint the sensation. "Can we scrap the original mission and check into this base?"

"Yeah. I've got to admit," Fox chuckled nervously, "there's absolutely no activity in the area, which is strange. Their outpost should be running its second morning patrol by now."

Krystal finally said, "I sense incredible suffering from the outpost and the same from the base. C'mon Fox, let's check it out." To her suggestion, Fox could only agree. The tank changed course, heading directly for the Venom outpost now. They came along the river that Fox dreamed about but there was no river supply patrol. It was calm and the current seemed to be almost nonexistent. They drove along this river until it came to the outpost which seemed abandoned.

"I hate to say this," Fox muttered, "But the last time a base was this quiet, it was a trap. When the Aparoids assaulted me at Katina, I actually didn't feel this nervous. My gut feeling says to leave."

"As does mine," She sourly confessed.

The tank came to a stop in front of the main doors which were just open enough for a person to get through, but not a full sized tank. Fox opened the hatch, but left the tank running. He then helped Krystal out and the two of them slipped through the massive blast doors in the front, heading inside.

There was a decomposing body on the floor, Krystal wrinkled her muzzle in disgust, looking away and trying to breath through her mouth instead of her nose. Fox guided her away from the body and the two continued through the court yard, heading into an open bay on the side and into a hallway. Another two bodies. Both of them were in a rapid state of decomposition. Krystal squinted her eyes shut, the smell was so bad it was causing her eyes to water.

"What do you think happened to them?" Fox's question went unanswered, since she didn't have one to offer. Fox glanced back to another body on the floor, who's grotesque features caused him to get Goosebumps beneath his fur. He ran his paw up through the milky tuft of fur between his ears, looking a bit nervous. "You know, it looks like they're rotted from disease. I don't see any signs of weapon injuries."

"..Yeah," Krystal muttered under her breath. She paused, then glanced back to Fox, shaking her head. "Maybe we should go back towards the tank?" She didn't like the strange sensations she was sensing. She could detect faint brain patterns but oddly, it felt as though it was coming from somewhere nearby. Too close for comfort.

"There's some sort of way we can find out what's going on here. Our best bet," Fox said, turning down the next hallway with sudden purpose, "Is to head to the medical bay and see what's been documented." He led Krystal down towards the medical ward, which was clearly marked on the walls. The doors were without power and he had to push them open, although the base still had lights.

Inside, there were bodies on the beds, floors and medical staff strewn among the dead. Their uniforms told all. Finally, Fox approached a scientist looking doctor in a lab coat in an office, who died in his chair, in front of his computer. McCloud pulled a small cable out of his computerized wrist gauntlet and plugged the end of the wire into a hookup on the front of the computer box. He then opened a transmission to Slippy.

Fox cleared his throat, then said, "Toad, I want you to analyze this from your laptop in your room. Tell me what's on this computer and what kind of data this Medic guy documented recently. Long story for a later date, I'll explain why in the future, just let me know what you find."

There was a momentary pause, then Slippy accessed the file format from his computer and switched the language from Venom to Cornerian. The channel opened once more and Slippy replied, "This sounds pretty wild. There's some sort of disease that is assumed to have come from the mine of Fortuna where they were getting their iron ore to build this base. Seems that some of the soldiers began g-getting sick. The disease starts airborne but then goes to fluid-transmission. Looks like it reprograms the genetic makeup of a being then kills their brain tissue rapidly. They decompose inside out, starting with internal organs and brain matter. The Medulla Oblongata is completely unaffected. Suggestion of premature death has been, thus far, d-d-decapitation."

Fox and Krystal exchanged a surprised gaze. After a moment, they both said at the same time, "Decapitation?"

* * *

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A/N: Oooo, freaky freaky! At least, this time,you don't have to wait long... I uploaded chapter 6, too! Enjoy!


	6. C6 FutureReflections

A/N: _I promised you all sappy, romantic lovin's! I'm getting to it, gimmie a sec! Hehe. You'll see me get into it, as I conclude this chapter and start with it the next chapter. No it won't cross into "mature" land. It will all be metaphorical romance that makes everyone feel mushy inside, hehe. Buwahaha, I shall give you both action and super sappy romance, dripping with squishy love. hee..._

_From this point, this story is going to become a girl's story or even possibly the story of super sappy emo guys, like myself. (Although I don't listen to Thursday or anything.) If it's fear that gives people wings, it's love that elevates them. Get ready for some super gooey romance. Just tell me if you guys wind up wanting the sappy-factor turned down. Although Fox seems to come out of his shell a bit more when he's got privacy. Krystal will have to learn this. It gets sappier next chapter. :-P Enjoy._

_Btw, maybe it's me, but you know how I bold the first few words of every new section? The first words I bold at the beginning of chapter 6 just ... don't sound right XD_

* * *

C H A P T E R _six_

**Fox reached for a pair of rubber gloves on the shelf** that were sitting in a tub of Alcohol. He slipped them on, shaking the excess alcohol from them then went to one of the cadavers on the table. With Slippy's instruction, he went for the scalpel and took a tissue sample. From there, he went to the computer on the side of the room and set up a computer link to the Medical Ship.

Slippy set up a remote hosting session so that he could access the Venom computer from his station. He'd been giving access to a medical computer station in a lab by now and was uploading the results from the sample on the scanner plate next to the monitor.

"You're not going to believe this," Slippy said over the communicator. His attention was on the display on his end, but he continued to talk, offhandedly. "This tissue is still alive. And it's remarkably similar to the tissue samples of what was left of bio-weapons from the old Lylat War. It's the same structure of quickly rotting flesh with a twist… It seems that the dead skin is being purposely created by the living tissue beneath and used as a thick layer of … well.."

"Spit it out," Fox ordered.

"Armor. It's being used as Armor, Fox." Slippy's words caused McCloud to frown, turning back to Krystal who shook her head with a shrug. "Let me explain," continued the frog. "If you wanted to make a bio weapon out of living tissue, but it was weak and frail like we all are, you would create a genetic modifier to take dead skin, turn it into a thick husk-like shell of armor, then it would be tough against electronic blasts or even physical bruising."

Fox furrowed his brows in confusion, reaching his left paw behind his head and scratching lightly at the nape of his neck. "What would that do? Why is it happening on these bodies? They're dead; I don't see ANYthing alive about them or their 'tissue'."

Slippy sighed in thought. After a moment of pause, he finally told them, "The bottom layer of this tissue is alive. The cellular structure is amazing and they're working to construct the husk. The tissue is alive, Fox. The only thing I can think of is that these are victims of b-b-bio weapon creation."

"Who would conduct experiments on these soldiers? They all look as though they've died where they stand. Some of them are even at their stations, as if they died suddenly," Fox explained. "Not only that, Slip… None of them looked shocked or surprised as if someone came in and started shooting; they look like they fell over in agony, twisted around a little, writhed for a few minutes then froze like that. This doesn't make any sense!"

"Fox, all I know is what I can see on my monitor. I can, however, tell you one good thing," Slippy said. Fox and Krystal acknowledged over the radio that he had their undivided attention. "Well, Fox; Krystal, you won't get this disease."

"That's good to know," Krystal said softly with a confirming nod.

"Yes," Slippy agreed, "It would really suck if half of the StarFox team turned into this. But from what I can see of these cells, from our computers up here on this medical ship, I've come up with a theory that won't be very pleasing to the ears." He paused a moment then explained, "It starts airborne. After a few stages of change, it goes from body fluid transfer. Don't get the bodily fluids in your pours or anything. It's highly toxic and you'll turn into one of those things on the floor. Anything from saliva to blood is going to be poisonous. Don't let one of them bite you."

"Bite us?" Fox said, flabbergasted. "They're dead! How can they bite us? Look around us," He said, pointing the gauntlet away from himself, to display the bodies all around the Venom Lab, to Slippy up on the Cornerian Medical Ship they were using as base. "How's Peppy and Falco doing?"

Slippy gave a wan smile. "They're working on securing a new GreatFox. They're working out a financing deal with Space Dynamics and our bank. We should have a new ship in about 2 weeks, maybe less."

Krystal frowned, folding her arms. Fox knew the look and turned to face Slippy's holographic display once more. "What's the hold up?"

"We're approved for the price of the ship alone, b-b-but Peppy wants to get Gap Insurance, a warranty and a few aftermarket add-ons that he feels would be in our benefit. That raises the price to something that we're not exactly qualified for. Not outright, anyhow. It's all about p-price negotiations and that car-sales haggling bit that everyone hates."

"Glad I'm not involved in it," Fox mused softly. "I don't have the patience for price haggling or any of that crap. Make sure we have some upgrades. Hell, tell Peppy to increase the down payment to lower the amount to finance. Do whatever, he knows what he's doing… he helped Dad get the first one." Fox clinched his left paw into a fist, remembering the simple fact that the first GreatFox belonged to his father and was now gone, but there was nothing he could do. He kept calm in his tone of voice. "Just have him do what he's got to do."

"We've got some after market additions that are beyond what we need. I'm excited personally," Said Slippy with a wry grin. "The sooner we get into that ship, the sooner I'll be able to have fun when I want to toil."

Krystal tried to smile, to the humor in consideration of the surrounding situation of bodies and the stench of death in the air. She even tried to make a joke, "You mechanics. You're not happy unless you're tinkering." There was still a measure of edge in her voice.

"Very true," Said Slippy, adding, "All right. You guys get the hell out of there. I'm telling you, to stay away from those things. They're absolutely toxic. And from what I'm reading here from the archives on the computers on that side, they've had one case of one of those things waking up and attacking other crew members. It was d-d-destroyed by the removal of its head. It's also theorized that the destruction of the body will suffice."

"Not going to believe it until I see it," Fox said, shaking his head slowly. "Krystal you said something about sensing distress here?" He asked.

She gave a slow nod, replying with an almost frail voice. "Yes. But there's something else I can't seem to pin point. The agony has left the cry for distress and it's different now. It seems more… hmm, angry or possibly agitated now."

"All right, let's go. This outpost is no longer a threat," Fox noted thoughtfully, turning back to the floating image of Slippy above his wrist. "We'll contact you if anything is worth noting, Fox out." Slippy's image fluttered into a half polygon skeleton then fluttered into nothing. McCloud turned back to Krystal and nodded towards the door. "This place gives me the creeps, let's move."

"It gives _you_ the creeps?" She said, accenting her tone on the third word with a furrowing of her brows. She fell into step behind Fox and the two of them headed back the way in which they came. "Do you think we should destroy the out post, like a receipt of work?"

Fox nodded to her question. "Something says we should burn this place to the ground anyway. Best thing we can do to give these poor freaks a proper burial." They headed for the refueling center, where the fighters and tanks were fueled. Fox knocked over one of the large canisters of explosive thermal liquids used to provide engines with the combustion to run some of the low end vehicles and some of the flame throwers one of the goon squads used.

He pointed to the door and Krystal nodded quickly, heading out of the fueling center. He backed to the door then pulled out one of the small yellow grenades in his pocket, with the blue round shapes dotted about it. Giving the blue sections a firm squeeze, he counted for a few seconds, to 'cook' the grenade. He then tossed it across the floor and sprinted out of the center.

Krystal saw him running and quickly began to do the same. They headed for the massive blast doors that had been slightly open, with the tank in sight on the other side. Behind them, the fuel center erupted into a massive fireball, which began to spread across the next building over.

Krystal darted through the opening, climbing up onto the tank. She glanced back over her shoulders but didn't see Fox. Something raced through her brain and she gasped.

Inside, Fox had been sprinting for the massive metallic gate when a brownish arm lanced out at neck-level and clothes lined him to the ground. He now lay on his back, staring up at a body just as Slippy as predicted. It lowered his arms, reaching for Fox by his collar, then lifted him up, throwing him across the base's courtyard. Fox rolled to a stop, glancing up at the freak with a measure of shock gripping his brain into a state of vertigo.

Suddenly the beast lurched forward, landing on its stomach. Behind it, Krystal stood with her staff which had been in her backpack. She gave the pole a twirl, obviously still fluent with its use. "Now we're even from all those times you've saved my tail," She said to put him at ease about being embarrassed to have been saved by a girl.

The disfigured being stood up with a supernatural grace, turning to lunge at her. She pivoted her body, spinning herself to add momentum and body weight into the full swing of her staff, hitting it across the face as hard as she could. The scabby lizard's head snapped to the side. But instead of having a broken neck, it suddenly had a broken temper.

She could sense the exasperation emanating from the freak. It continued to approach, reaching for her, when its head suddenly snapped forward, causing it to look downwards. Fox had hit it with a blaster shot in the backside of its head, but the beast was un-phased.

"I don't think it really felt that!" Krystal shouted, sensing the freak was growing frustrated. It suddenly snatched Krystal by her neck and pulled her from her feet. Its other hand reached at her pant leg and chucked her at Fox. She collided with the vulpine and both flopped over, each groaning in pain.

"I don't think it's very happy," Fox moaned, trying to sit up. Krystal picked herself up, moving to her knees, glancing up at the creature who was making another angry hobble towards the pair.

"You know, dead skin is just dried out skin that lacks water and kinda tightens up or something right?" Fox muttered, coming to his feet, helping Krystal to her own. The two backed away from the being, moving further from the exit gate. He continued with his thought, aloud. "Which means that dead skin burns like dry grass," He said with a soft voice. Krystal simply nodded. Behind them, part of the outpost was now roaring in flames.

"I see what you're thinking but how do we get that fire to that beast, without getting our own fur singed?" She asked.

"Hm, what about the fire blaster on your staff?" Fox inquired, going in a whole new direction with his plan.

"Let's stick with the fire behind us," Krystal said with a sigh. "It's not charged. I suppose I could charge it in the tank, on the way to the base, but right now, let's go back to the original idea."

McCloud coughed and exclaimed, "Idea! Get ready to grab that guy by his left arm, I get his right arm. We're going to knock him down as hard as we can and grab him and throw him into the pit. Ready?" Fox continued to back away from the creature, now able to feel the roar of heat against his back, growing closer to the burning buildings behind himself. "Okay… now!"

He suddenly snatched the staff from Krystal's paws, leaving her to exclaim, "Hey! My staff!" He didn't waste time, putting all his strength and body weight into hitting a home run that would have even taken the head of most robots, let alone a living creature. The deformed lizard landed on its back.

The two vulpine pilots raced to either side of the dazed creature, grabbing an arm. They suddenly broke into a sprint, racing towards the flames. Krystal could feel the massive blaze against her body as they grew closer. It became unbearable now, and she had to use her free paw to shield her face to protect her eyes.

Fox suddenly shouted over the roar of the massive flames. "NOW!" He shifted his body weight and she did the same, sensing his intentions. The creature was just regaining its senses after having been whacked so hard. Suddenly it began to scream as it realized it was being hurled into the flames. Fox and Krystal both dashed away from the wall of fire where the air was cooler.

The being began to flail wildly, rushing away from the flames. The heat of the fire forced air out through its lunges, causing it to moan in an eerie sound that gave both pilots goose bumps beneath their fur. The being tossed its arms and head listlessly before collapsing to the dirt, rolling left to right in an instinctual attempt to smolder the flames.

"Fox? Now would be a great time to get back to the tank incase he recovers," Krystal said calmly. Fox was standing there, watching in horror as the being screamed in agony. He felt a touch guilty, the soldier didn't ask for this. "Fox…? Now would be… a great time, to uh," She trailed off, watching the creature move back to its feet, still engulfed in flames. Scarlet tendrils of fire reached up into the sky over four feet above its head, giving it an intimidating look. It began its approach again. "…to RUN!" She shouted, grasping at the shoulder of his shirt. They both began a hard sprint for the huge metal gate, racing for that opening to where freedom and their tank were located.

"I swear if that thing closes," Fox shouted as they made a mad dash, "It's too cliché, it'd better not happen!" He said, now only a few feet from the opening. Just incase it did happen, he skidded to a halt, reaching for Krystal's wrists, and grasping them. He gave her a quick shove, making sure she went through the exit, just so that if that cliché moment did happen, she'd at least be safe.

Perhaps Fox was, indeed, psyche today. Especially after his dream, he had to wonder. No sooner did she pass through that thin gap, did the gates begin to close. Maybe Fox subconsciously knew that these bases were designed to shut off the fire's access to outside foliage, so that forest fires didn't occur. It didn't matter; it slammed shut just as soon as she passed through. "DAMMIT!" Fox shouted, hating the fact that he was right.

"ARE YOU OKAY!" he shouted. She could hear him on the other side of the massive metal gate. It was only 7 feet high, but too high and flat for him to try and climb it. The freakish burning lizard began to approach. He suddenly sprinted in another direction, heading back towards where her staff was laying in the middle of the open dirt space.

He dove for it, grabbing it into his paws and rolling into position that had him on one knee. He jumped back up and began running again, holding the lengthy metal spear up over his head, to use it as balance. He skids to a halt once more. Taking his blaster out into his left paw, he fired off two shots, hitting the creature in a shoulder, then in the forehead, knocking it off balance.

He continued his sprint, keeping the freak at bay. The more it burned, the more the creature slowed down, in its attempt to run. The more oxygen the flames consumed, the more difficult it became for the creature to even hold a breath. It was slowly suffocating, asphyxiated by the massive flames that danced upon the creature's body.

Fox shoved the blaster back into its holster, took the staff in both paws, winding it up behind his head, like a baseball bat. He slowly approached the creature now, keeping the staff at the ready. Suddenly he came into a stance; his ankles spread apart, his stance open and loose. Once the creature was close enough, he swung with all his might, once more. He swung so hard, that his body felt like jelly afterwards.

The connection was almost satisfying. Like knowing when you've just hit a home run and every fiber in your body tells you that the ball is going right over the fence. He hit the creature so hard that it back flipped, landing on its stomach, head over heels.

The charge meter on the staff did display a low set of bars. But it wasn't completely worthless. There may not have been enough energy for a round of blaster fire shots but there was just enough power left for his next new plan.

He began running for the large metal gate at the end of the dirt field, where they had entered the base earlier. He lifted the staff above his head, while running and it began to vibrate in his paws. The glowing pole was bright with an azure incandescence. He stabbed the tip into the ground and clung to it the way a sailor clings to a piece of drift wood floating in the ocean.

It launched upwards and catapulted his body vertically. He leaned forward and then tucked his head down, kicking his legs back, so that he did a loose summersault, landing on the top of the metal gate, seven feet above the beast. As it grew closer to the bottom of the gate, the flames reaching up above its dried fleshy body licked at the heels of McCloud's feet.

He leapt forward, on the side where the Land Master was located, throwing his paws upwards, still holding the staff. He immediately ducked into a roll, to break his fall, then stood up, panting. Krystal raised her brows, still standing on top of the last master, obviously impressed with his flashy escape method.

"I think," Fox said between heavy breaths, "we're ready," he continued between each panting breath, "To finish this mission… get paid… and get the hell off this planet."

"Agreed. How did you get over the wall, Fox?" Krystal was obviously impressed he made it over the wall. She was about to use the tank and try to blow the gates open but didn't know how to warn him to keep clear. It didn't matter now; he was safe and, while winded, he was in good shape.

"I think this whole thing is growing out of proportion," Fox grumped. "We really need to get a bigger contract drawn up. This is insane."

"Just be glad we're alive, Fox." She gave a smile, then leaned to touch the side of his face. "Let's camp first. I think we're both exhausted and it's not even noon yet."

"I agree," he said, suddenly leaning into her touch. "Let's find somewhere closer to the other base."

* * *

**It was after three in the afternoon** and the camp was in place. They were now only a few miles from the main base. The staff was on charge in the tank and the two of them sat in a tent, looking at a layout of this particular base, which came from the flight through it on the attack against Andrew Oikonni. Black box recordings now gave them the lay out of the base, which was rather large. 

Fox sat on his tail, with his legs folded in, Indian style. His eyes danced across the layout page in front of them. Krystal leaned over his left knee, placing her finger on the paper, glancing up at him. "What about here?"

"I…" Fox paused, looking at the proximity of her body. "That's .. A good entry point," He trailed off. She sat up a bit, bringing her face level to his own.

"You think so?" Krystal said with a soft smile. Their eyes were rather close now. She wanted to glance down to break the staring but she couldn't pull her eyes from his. "I… was thinking," She paused now, half chuckling at herself before adding, "We should wait about twelve hours. They would be most off balance."

"I agree," Fox nodded, but not breaking the gaze they held with one another. It was now, that their muzzles were only inches apart, the way she faced him now. His mouth opened once more to speak but no words came out. Instead she began to move forward.

Without warning, Fox's arm gauntlet began to chirp that there was an incoming transmission request. They both froze at the sudden interruption. But Fox couldn't stand cliché story-style occurrences. To him, this was his chance to exchange control of the situation. He reached with his right paw to his left wrist, hitting the mute button, then placed his lips against her own soft velvet tiers. Her paws lifted to either side of his face, cupping gently.

The kiss lasted for several moments. The privacy is what Fox needed to come out of his shell around her. His tongue escaped his muzzle, slipping forward to paint her soft lips, pressing to gain entrance. Those soft lips of her maw parted and in that moment, they shared a passionate kiss for the first time. And while it was quite sudden to have happened, it had been a year and a half of working as team mates before this occurred. They both melted into this kiss with feverous intimate desire.

* * *

A/N:_ is it...totally...Murr?_ :-D 


	7. C7 FutureReflections

A/N: _Resident Evil…. I'm getting that from everyone who reads it..._

_Don't worry, I'm not insulted, just amused. I'll make this quick so we can get to the sappy romance :) I love good sappy romance, don't you?_

_But there's a reason for it... Andross was known for making Bio(organic)Weapons. When an under water Aquais one fails, when one on Titania fails, when one on SOL Fails, when one over the star of Cerinia fails, why not just turn your own soldiers into experiments? If they're nearly impossible to kill, they'll make a much more effective attack force against CORNERIA. _

_And what Government official is going to believe in Zombies? So they're not going to try and listen to StarFox about quarantining Fortuna. Lol. When you're a mad geneticist, what are your options for the future? If Nintendo sees Resident Evil and Luigi's Mansion selling, if they see that people love the Zombies in Zelda (remember ocarina of time?) so much that they make another appearance in Super Smash Brothers Melee, I think they're not going to be against having them show up for a level or two in a future SF game…. May not be probable but definitely possible, at least! Here's Chapter 7! Enjoy! Btw, I re-wrote the final chapter of Reflections Of Krystal with a few extras that tie into this story (and this chapter)

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C H A P T E R _seven_

**They each felt the same way about this** situation. '_It's about time,'_ they both thought to themselves. The kiss was long and it was not _just_ good, it was _great_. It was exceptional. It was an explosion of pleasure, emotions and feelings that each of them had locked into their hearts after the deaths of their families and the recent war and everything else.

But all that pain and past washed away at that very moment in time. They were like two angels with only one wing. The only way they could fly was when they were embraced. Their hearts both pounded furiously in excitement and a measure of trepidation. Her exploring paws went to his chiseled chest, drawing his body even closer to her own. Velveteen muscles that danced and dueled over one another's tongue was enough to cause them both to grow flush.

The hungry fervor that each pilot experienced was akin to a sensual bliss that seemed as tangible as a blanket. Their souls were on fire and the love each one felt for the other was finally unlocked in full. Their relationship was finally able to begin and it seemed to be rooted as a wonderful one with a firm foundation. Their relationship was fated to be a completely two way street.

Fox finally broke the kiss, because this wasn't the time or place to mate with his vixen. It was wonderful and while he'd always thought a relationship would weigh him down, this feeling was quite the opposite.

There were two types of love in life. Sometimes it's a flash of lighting and it's hot and it's intense but in that glow, you feel alive. And, yet, once it ends... it ends. But at least you were able to experience it. It's magic, it's magnetic and its heated union would never be forgotten.

Other times, you're the ocean and it rolls over you like the sky, as far as you can see, into forever. It stays with you, joined at the horizon, indefinitely. Anyone who experienced love like that is lucky. When a man or woman feels love like that, no matter if it's short or long, its wings can take them to FAR greater heights than anything else. As opposed to feeling restricted, True Love can free the participants.

And right now, Fox felt more free than he'd ever felt in his life. And it was just one kiss. Their first.

"I'm sorry I," Krystal started, but Fox quieted her by placing a soft, furry digit against her lips.

"Shh, let's not make it a regret," Fox whispered. McCloud offered a soft smile. Her paws lowered from his muzzle, going to his knees, now facing him. They'd managed to turn towards one another during the kiss. "It felt right to me, what about you?" he asked.

Krystal nodded slowly, allowing a heartfelt smile to spread across her muzzle. "I've wanted to tell you something for a very long time, Fox," She whispered. To make her words that much more personal, she leaned forward so that her nose brushed against his headfur. Soft, warm breath caressed the flesh of his ear, causing a shiver to race down his spine. Her words were spoken with such intensity that it caused his lower lip to quiver. "I love you," the words rolled off her tongue.

There, she said it. It felt so good to get it out, like uncapping the top on a container in which the contents were under pressure. She felt like she was finally free of that hidden, secret burden that she'd carried around for more than half a year now. This sudden sensation of passion enveloped her heart and carried it to a height she'd never experienced before. She felt free and floating. Not like the sensation of falling but instead, the sensation of being elevated.

It was so very different. When she was a child, Cerinia held such a different vision of what love felt like. It was blissful, of course, but it was filled with responsibility. The man provided for the family and the woman raised the children. A man would try his hardest to provide, and on her world, it wasn't a provision of money. The man would hunt, be a caregiver and ensure the safety of his family. He would be the first person to pick up tools and repair a broken stair so his wife wouldn't hurt herself on it.

Cornerian men were far different. If it's broke, call the repair man. If you're hungry, go to the café or bring home something for your wife to cook. If the children gave mommy a headache, it was time for the man to take the kids out back to learn how to ride a speeder, or shoot a blaster. There were similarities but often times there were stark contrasts to be noticed.

She never knew who she'd fall in love with as a child. Her parents were senators on behalf of the old royal family monarchs that ruled a section of the planet, several generations back. That history was nothing now, without a future. But she vowed to pass on her history through her offspring. Now her future was looking to be secured. It was just like the oracle told her.

It wasn't that Krystal was rushing into a family. The fact she had to secure the existence of her race did weigh on her shoulders but she knew that her priorities were to survive Lylat first. Since coming though this system on her hunt for answers, she'd been captured, joined the Cornerians against an assault and full scale invasion, then involved herself with the rescue efforts.

Now, as a young adult, she was learning her place in life. She'd never thought she'd go from royal blood as the daughter of a couple in the senate to a Mercenary for hire. But that was the irony of life. It was an honest living and it provided for herself as well as those that were in distress. That was her calling. But now there was something else.

Fox McCloud had captivated her. They had the ability to argue over something as trivial as him having her staff, to the ability to stop in the heat of a serious moment to smile at one another, or ask if the other was well. That happened several times in the war against the Aparoids. She was able to determine if he was all right, when he took blaster fire from the enemy while dashing across the surface of a planet. They cared for one another.

It was deeper than that, however. She asked herself if it was the knowledge that he was able to pick up where she'd left off and came to the distress of a planet in need by proving he was pure of heart. He was able to finish the tasks she'd begun by freeing the first Krazooa spirit and returned it to the shrine within the temple of Sauria. Knowing he was pure of heart was something else she adored about him but it wasn't the reason she loved him.

Sauria was so far different from her home world and yet so beautiful. Now it was nearly in ruins. Fox noticed the slight change of emotion on her face and inquired about it, worried that she was frowning because she may have regretted the kiss. It was a cute little boyish pout that melted her heart.

"No, Fox," She said with a calm smile, cupping his muzzle with her paw. "I was just reflecting on so much that had happened. As a little girl, I always wondered what kind of man I would find to call my own. In a whole world of telepaths, I couldn't sense what kind of man would make my heart beat faster and yet make time slow down, simultaneously."

"Go on," Fox said, obviously interested in what she had to say. He was enthralled. She was his other half and he'd only come to realize it the moment their lips collided. Or perhaps he'd always realized it in his heart and never acknowledged it.

"And I wonder if I was always meant to find you?" She asked aloud. "If you're my true soul mate and no man on Cerinia was fated to be my one true love, then did fate bring us together? And if it did, was it necessary for my entire race need to die for it to happen? I feel guilty, as if our love was at their expense." There was more that made her frown for that brief moment but it was all just reflections on her part.

Did the Cornerians have to suffer to the cruel fate of the Aparoids just because she sensed distress on Sauria? Had they known that Corneria was the real Aparoid target, would StarFox have assisted them and let Sauria turn into a wasteland? She felt guilty for her new pleasure after all she'd been through and yet it was a liberating sensation of happiness that eased the suffering of her soul.

"We've been through so much together, what do you think our future holds?" She finally asked him.

Fox thought about the question. There was so much going on now. There was so much past, but now there is so much current in his life. He had to wonder if the bio-weapon lizards were a creation of Andross or if Andrew survived the Aparoid attacks and started dabbling in whatever his Uncle left behind. It would make sense, since Andrew disappeared over Fortuna, but there was simply no proof yet.

"There's a lot on our plate," McCloud finally started, pausing to think of how best to word his statement. "But it seems to me," He continued, trailing off again. Suddenly, inspiration touched his voice and he added, "if we're going to make our lives together a success we have to be able to base all of our future team decisions on experience and logistics. If we get selfish, we're only hurting ourselves. I want this to work, Krystal. The better we work as a team, the better we're going to survive everything, starting with these creatures and ending with our lives together."

"Have you ever wanted to know what the future holds, Fox?" She asked him. Her eyes met his and those deep green orbs held his gaze for a long minute before he found the words with which to answer her question.

"I'm afraid if I ever learn what the future holds, my decisions will be bias and may lead to me becoming a poor team leader," he explained. She nodded for him to continue and so he did. "Knowing the future is a power even the Goddess doesn't care to use. I mean," He shrugged, adding, "You know? She may have the ability to look into the future but she gave us Free Will and any bias decisions would be an unfair turn of events that reduce the usefulness of that gift."

"That's," Krystal trailed off. Finally she settled on, "Deep, Fox. Very deep. But what if someone came to us with our future. Would you want to know about it?"

"Any future they give us would become tainted, Krystal. IF we know what happens, we might accidentally change it in an attempt to preserve it," Fox told her. He then added, "Slippy and I had a long conversation about this once, when we were bored. He told me that and it made perfect sense. He sometimes pretends to be dumb because he's a klutz and people have come to expect him to be a screw up, but… he's really quite a brain at times."

"Really? I mean I know he's smart; he makes all those gadgets and manages to repair intricate machines," Krystal agreed.

"But he's the first person to understand the theory behind the Jump Gate, or how a gravity bomb works or how a wormhole can be temporarily stabilized," McCloud told her, drawing the vixen into his lap. She felt comfortable there. It was a natural feeling to be this close to him. It caused her heart to flutter gently, just being in proximity to him and now she could let those feelings out, finally.

"Where's his drawback? Why ask questions based on what Peppy meant by saying the Aparoid home world was disproportionate to its mass, Fox?"

McCloud shrugged slightly. It was an odd question to an odd situation. "Either he didn't understand what Peppy was saying," Fox mused, "or it's because he's never been much of an academic type. I don't know why he wouldn't know what proportionate or mass means; he did pretty well in Engineering Physics Advanced Placement in the Academy."

"He's an enigma all right," she said with a chuckle. "Didn't he call us earlier?"

Fox sighed with a wan smile. "All right, I'll contact him." He lifted his left wrist, horizontal, between the two of them. He tapped a button and opened the transmission with the Medical ship, causing Slippy's image to hover between the two of them. "Sorry, Slip. Was catching a nap; we've gotta be fit for our invasion on the base, later."

"I've got some disturbing news, Fox!" Slippy glanced over his shoulder then turned back to his Holo emitters, so that Fox's unit displayed the backside of his head for a moment, then his face once more. "You know me, f-f-Fox. I can solve a Rubik's cube and I can rebuild an engine but when it comes to genetics I'm a lost cause. I got the medical staff to look further into detail on that tissue sample and I've got more information than what I was simply reading off the screen earlier."

"Great! Lay it on us, Slip," Fox said with a smile.

Slippy grunted, "Yeah." He seemed to look annoyed but continued with the detailed report. "This has Andross written all over it. The guy here, standing behind me now, is a professor in the field and did his dissertation on Andross' bio-weapon engineering. They're convinced that this might be proof that he's alive."

"We've gotta get more evidence to back it up," Fox nodded in reply. "If we don't have it, we don't have much to go on. If you guys want a sample, I'll try and find one elsewhere. There's nothing left at the outpost."

"Oh geeze, great job, Fox!" Slippy scolded. "Those were important specimens. They're crucial."

"You've not fought against one yet," Fox scolded in return. He lightened his tone and told the frog, "Look, I'll see what I can do. Right now, things are complicated. I'll explain some other time. Just know that if Andross _is_ involved with this, it means he's alive. However, the likely scenario is that his idiot nephew is trying to make use of one of his uncle's old experiments. If that's the case, Andrew doesn't know what the hell he's doing and it's going to get out of control very fast."

"We've done some more extensive analysis," Slippy changed the subject. "Using a computer model based on all the factors we could find and plug into the program, it looks like the symptoms get pretty weird before brain-death occurs."

"Explain, Slip. I wanna know what you know," Fox replied.

Krystal's heart iced over at Slippy's answer. "Well, Fox. First, the victim begins to lose their inhibitions. Their willpower will be affected and their judgment will grow poor. Next, they'll begin to lose memories because the disease puts a chemical in your brain that physically blocks out parts of the mind. It's reversible and you're not completely lost at this point. There's an actual cure leading all the way up to the third and fourth symptom."

Krystal cleared her throat and asked, "What happens after you lose your memories?"

"You begin to get violent," Slippy replied. "Confused and disoriented. Your decision making abilities are gone. You don't remember anything and the chemicals that block out parts of your brain make things that much more difficult. You're left with your primal instincts with no ability of basic comprehension. All you know are the most primal and the most carnal of instincts."

"Go on, what's the fourth?" She asked.

Slippy continued, "Your body is beginning to scar up, on purpose. Your organs are stressed and it may hurt to urinate or digest liquids or certain types of foods. Your kidneys are stressed and your liver is taxed. Those organs are in danger of failing."

Fox now asked, "And beyond that, you're incurable?"

"After that point, certain organs die and your brain begins to die," Slippy told them in a sullen voice. "The chemicals have been in your brain long enough that they're starting to grow acidic. The tissue breaks down and your memories and ability to reason is lost for good. The Venom computer archive claims that this point is where you're becoming nothing more than a walking weapon. The only method of cure at this point is decapitation or destruction of the body. But it gets complicated," Slippy explained, turning to get some quick information from the professor that was behind him. Fox and Krystal couldn't see who Slippy had turned to speak to, because Slippy was blocking the path of the holo-recorders. After a moment, he turned back to his communications gear.

"It's not determined if you'll remember things after you're cured that happened before you're given the antidote," He noted, then mentioned, "but it's assumed that your brain will still record information to that section of the correct lobe. You won't be able to access it, however. This means the victim will have a very short memory span, probably only a few minutes, if not seconds. You'll have access to the most primal of urges, like eating and mating and of course obvious things holding your breath under water or fighting or something."

"Back to becoming brain dead," Krystal asked with a deep frown.

"You don't want that," Slippy said with a shrug. "The antidote is pretty amazing, though. It has the ability to reverse everything. It breaks down the chemicals in your brain that block your ability to use it. It renders the fluid in your blood to become harmless.

"The primary objective of this disease is to get into your blood and slowly reprogram the red cells to cycle waste differently. That reprograms skin cells to build up dead tissue on your body to make you a difficult bio-weapon to dispatch, but the antidote breaks down the toxin quickly and your primary cellular programming will return. Your body will start to function normally again. It'll take a little while for the dead skin to peel off, but it works and restores your brain functions rather quickly."

"You said the first thing you feel is sick?" Krystal inquired, to be totally sure.

"Not at all," Slippy said. "The agony of your body going through harsh changes comes nearly at the end, when it's almost too late."

"Then go ahead," Fox said. "You said something about becoming uninhibited?"

"That's correct," said the frog. "You get a little carnal. Lusty, hungry, anything without reason. So be careful. You lose your mind before you lose your body. This thing attacks and shuts down brain functions. We're all animals, and one of you may force yourself, lustfully or violently, on the other... without your mind working. Without reason, we're no better than a forest creature. The length of life for one of these creatures is a few years, but more accurately, the computer model is giving you a long-term life expectancy of less than 5 years."

Slippy paused then tilted his head, listening to something from the professor behind himself. He then frowned. "And when your body finally does break down, your death is assumed to be excruciating, although probably not as bad as when your body changes the first time. Letting yourself get that far into the advanced stages of this disease will cause serious nerve damage to your skin, if someone manages to restore you at such a late stage in the change."

"All right. We're going to start hunting for clues of the Oikonni presence in all of this. If you get it, how long does it take to start affecting you?" Fox wondered aloud.

Slippy shook his head disdainfully. "A few hours. A full change to the fourth stage has been plotted at 25 hours, according to the Venom lab archive. If one of you notices the other becoming weird or distant or animalistic, stun them."

"Why, what does that do, besides make them less annoying?" Fox asked.

Slippy took a deep breath then told them, "It lowers the heart rate. Less heart beating, less blood is being pumped. Then the disease can't spread as quickly. Your best bet is to stun them and bring them here. We can provide the antidote immediately. The disease is only airborne early in its life. Once it takes root in a host, it can only be spread through body fluids. This includes kissing, biting, sweat… you name it. If you're hot and sweating and your pours are open, and someone spits on your arm, you're a candidate to get it, so exercise caution, guys! It's possible that this began as a chemical weapon, to keep your eyes open for vats of the stuff, or even a powder version of the stuff. In that stage, it's airborne and you'll almost undoubtedly get it, so if you find it, call me. All right, Slippy out!"

Fox gawked and Krystal blinked, both staring at the silent communicator on Fox's left wrist. "If Andross is alive," Krystal said, shaking her head slowly. "He's going to answer to me, personally, for the atrocities involving the extermination of my race."

"Krys," Fox said, lowering his eyes with a depressive sigh. "If Andross is involved in this, and he's here, we're in serious trouble. I fight him in my turf, behind the controls of an Arwing. But person to person, it's a different story. And who knows," McCloud told her, "it's possible that Andrew had some sort of nanotech injection given to his solders. That way, if he dies, they all turn into creature weapons. Anything is possible, let's not conclude that Andross is definitely alive. Personally, I hope he's not. That would mean he's cheated my means of revenge twice. I want to know that my vengeance was justified and that justice was served."

"Fox," Krystal breathed the word, reaching her paw back out to lift his chin and bring his gaze back to her own. "If Andross is involved, we'll ensure his defeat together. We'll both be personally justified and that will be the end of it. If the new Emperor Oikonni is involved somehow, we'll find out. But it's possible that the disease was set up to become an airborne attacker, in the bases. That way, if Andrew dies, his revenge will be through those freaky monsters."

"I don't know, they've both made my life miserable," Fox groused. "I suppose I would take pleasure in finding out that at least one of them is alive, so that I can personally deliver the coup de grace," He said with a smirk.

"How dangerous is Andross to face in person?" She finally asked. Even at a near death state, the ape had enough physical power to pick her up and throw her into the reverse tractor beam, on Sauria. He was obviously quite the foe.

McCloud tilted his head, removing it from her paw. "While Andy is only a half-breed Gorilla with a marmoset, Andross is a full breed Gorilla. Without his machines, while wearing his geeky lab coat, he can pick us both up, one in each hand, and juggle us like couple of tennis balls," Fox admitted sourly in a confirming voice. "It would take both of us and then some, to beat him in person. At least without a blaster."

"Anyone you know that could beat him?" She asked.

Fox nodded slowly, almost cautiously. "In hand to hand combat, another gorilla that's trained to fight could take him, of course. But if I had someone like Wolf O'Donnell helping us to defeat him, we might have a chance. But Andross is probably dead, so trying to figure this out makes no sense."

"Mm, I wish I could simply sense the truth of either of them," Krystal sighed. "But at least we have something to start with." She reached to run her fingers through the milky tuft of fur upon his head then smiled, leaning to kiss his nose. "Although we may want to set up some sort of quarantine for those who are already on Fortuna. That way this disease doesn't make it back to Corneria. We'd really be in trouble if there was an outbreak, there."

"Perhaps that's best," Fox sighed thoughtfully. She reached to pat his cheek and smiled pleasantly. He couldn't help but smile in return, if only a small one was offered. He thought better on the situation and shook his head again. "It's strange... Everyone knows that Andrew Oikonni isn't much more than an idiot with strong aspirations. There's no way he could be the one involved."

"I disagree, Fox." Krystal shrugged thoughtfully then said, "He was shot down over this planet and has been missing in action ever since. The official report says his body was never recovered from the wreckage of his strange machine."

"I suppose I just worry that Andross is still alive," Fox explained. "I don't want to feel like I was gypped of my right to revenge and justice, yet again I was hoping the fight over Sauria would be his last stand."

"Well, if he is alive, we'll make sure he's dead this time," She said, scritching her fingernails behind his ear.

"Short of having his ashes in an urn under my bed, it'll be hard to really know if he's dead, even if I destroy him again," Fox groused under his breath.

"Fox, we'll defeat him with our bare paws," she promised. "But I doubt he's alive, and I know you have doubts as well. Our most likely suspect is the Nephew. If he's involved, we'll find out how to stop his plans and this disease completely and go from there."

"We still have a few hours before sundown," Fox said. Krystal gave a soft grin at his innuendo and snuggled herself into his chest. McCloud eased his right arm around her, drawing her close. "So, about this base lay-out," He continued, "I like your idea, let's just leave it at that. If we try to follow too much of a plan, we'll not have any options open in the field."

"Something like that," Krystal added, lifting her head to brush her soft lips against his...

* * *

**Peppy hare turned to Falco** Lombardi. To every one of Peppy's questions, the salesman answered with queries of his own. Finally the older Hare turned back to the man, shifted his weight onto the crutch that he'd been using, and smirked. "I may be turning into an old man but you really need to realize that I've been living on a dreadnaught cruiser since around the time you were born."

The salesman grew annoying. "That's great, Mister Hare, but I was just wondering if you've ever considered wondering what plasma engines really do for you? I was wondering if you're interested in the thought of proton propulsion."

"Proton propulsion wastes fuel and doesn't run as clean or as fast, what good is it to me? It costs me more, "Peppy said, ticking off the cons on his fingertips. "It takes up more room which causes the ship to be smaller on the interior and it's harder to keep the interior components clean. Why would I want that?"

"No, see; the things you're mentioning are true to a degree," Said the salesman, obviously being a bit pushy, wanting to make more money on the sale by including expensive engines, "But you can get a high output without being detected. If you wanted to add in the available cloaking option, these engines are undetectable when running at flank speed in stealth mode. That's very important!"

Falco finally lifted his feathery fingers, to hush the man. "Look, pal. It's really simple," he told the chump. "We're using this thing as a home, not as a hide out. We're living there and launching _paid missions_ from there, not running a stakeout. Give it a rest!"

The Salesman frowned thoughtfully. After an awkward silence, the annoyingly fast talking raccoon nodded in a reaffirming response. "All right, then I suppose let's go see the one you guys came in for."

He handed Falco and Peppy visitor badges then led them into a hallway that went into a building in the back of the lot. There was an elevator that led down several stories then came to a stop behind a set of glass doors that showed a massive bay. There were three ships in the massive room, one of which was shaped like the old GreatFox but with far sleeker curves.

A thin, polymer gangplank led into the hanger bay of the ship, with several metal support beams to keep the flimsy ramp stable. The raccoon lead Falco and Peppy up the ramp into the flight deck of the large cruiser. Even the flight deck looked large, but after walking through the massive underground room that held three full sized cruiser ships in dry dock, it seemed as though nothing could compare.

"What does it have standard, so far?" Peppy asked, turning about to look at the way the hanger was designed. There were lifts like in the old one, where the Arwings would be mounted, but it was larger and better designed. There was an elevator lift that would bring in Fighters that landed on the back entrance above the engine boosters. There were hallways on either side and Peppy could see himself in the chrome railings that lined the far sides of the lower deck and the edge of the second deck up top, where the fighters would be mounted.

"All right, gentleman. Follow me to the bridge."

By the time the trio arrived on the bridge, Falco had become quiet. It was stripped down and completely empty with cables and jack mounts in the walls around the sides. Peppy turned to the avian and nudged him slightly.

"It just doesn't feel like home," Lombardi muttered. "I know, it'll feel more filled out once all the terminals and computer stuff is installed but, I dunno."

"It _is_ missing something; I just can't put my finger on it," Peppy noted. "Hmm."

"So how much are you guys looking to get on your trade in?" Asked the Raccoon.

"You wouldn't want it, pal," Falco said with a smirk. "Let's just say we're lucky to have had a Gap Policy on it."

"I... see," The salesman replied. "Well, is there a certain amount you want to put down or finance on this or are we just window shopping today?"

Falco closed his eyes, turning away and Peppy simply shook his head. "Do you want to handle this, Falco, or should I?"

Lombardi took a long, slow breath then held his hand out to the hare. Peppy placed a small blue envelope shaped object into Falco's hand. He opened it and began writing with a pen that was inside of it.

"How much is the ship?" Lombardi said, not looking up from the credit (check)book.

The Salesman chuckled. "Heh, as is, it runs at 750 thousand credits, stripped down and without the after market add-ons that make it worth anything." His tone was one of sarcasm and challenge.

After a moment, Falco put the pen back into the side of the object and pulled out a small plastic chip, handing it over. An illuminated display on the chip read "750k". The Raccoon's eyes widened slightly as he took the chip into his paw. His gaze then lifted to Falco.

"There's your money. Now get the hell off our ship, moron," Falco replied to the salesman's unspoken question of confusion. "Go on, now. And on the way back to your office, if you happen to pass someone who knows about customer service, send'em down to see us. We want this ship ready to leave dry dock in two days, 'kay? Thanks, bye!" Lombardi reached his wing out to give the guy an 'about-face' shove, turning him towards the door.

"Buh-bye," He said, waving his feathery fingers. The Raccoon looked back over his shoulder with a bruised ego, then departed from the bridge.

"Well done," Peppy said with a wan smile. Lombardi handed the electronic creditbook back and folded his arms.

"Thanks." With that Falco gave a shrug and added, "Maybe we should get someone not affiliated with Space Dynamics to get this ready. They'll never have it delivered and out the door in two days. They make weapons not miracles."

Peppy chuckled, "Well, we'll see. Hm, I wonder how Fox and Krystal are making out?"

* * *

**Ironically, Peppy didn't know how right his words were**. At that very moment, Fox and Krystal had allowed themselves to fall hopelessly into a state of intense physical desire. 'Making out' was right on par with the current moment of heated actions.

Things were moving a bit quickly but after over a year and a half together, they had taken the top off of something that was obviously under pressure. This burst of carbonated love had been shaken and on the rocks for over 6 months now. This moment was bound to finally happen.

Exploring paws touched and caressed, learning every intimate inch of their new mate. They were obsessed in this intense hour of passion. They had lost control and spiraled endlessly into the oblivion of desire. Neither was ready to go further than this but both were only too pleased to embrace this moment as well as each other.

They were enflamed, enraptured and in this world of ecstasy, the world around them had disappeared, leaving only one another and the spotlight that bathed the two lovers in ethereal bliss. They both burned to experience that age-old rhythm of mating. Their desire was to be joined, to move as one writhing being; together as one; completed and whole. They also knew better than to rush into things any faster than they already were.

In this moment of avidity, there were no worries. Their hardest choice in life was to wait until a predetermined 'when' would occur. The mission, the death, the post-war effort... it all disappeared for a short time. To her, Fox's kiss was the most intoxicating drug. She burned to make him hers; he became her insatiable addiction.

Fox was equally contingent upon her very proximity. Her kiss gave him an unslakeable, voracious appetite for her love and her body. They were lost in the waves of passion that caused one another to cling to their new mate the way a sailor clings to driftwood, floating in an endless, undulating sea. Their paws were like the current, rolling over one another in sensual touch. Learning, exploring, their trek of passion was all consuming.

With their love becoming a journey into the realm of physical, they both had to know where to limit this passion. For now, this limit would revolve around remaining dressed. It was difficult not to fall into the land of temptation and make love here and now. However, both were mature enough to know that things had to start and blossom without haste or hindrance. Too much water would drown a flower; not enough water will starve it to death.

For now, the Bio Weapon attack, their mission and the rest of the world was forgotten. For now, it was their time. In this heated moment, there was true love.

* * *

A/N: is it ..._murrr_licious?


	8. C8 FutureReflections

A/N: _Yooo. Okay so we got to see Fox and Krystal get a little over zealous with their first make out scene. Neat. Now, let's get back to the story itself, eh? Word. Remember, Zombies aren't exactly the point of the whole thing… They're Bio-Organic Weapons. And if you catch the disease, your tail is in trouble. My new gf gave me the "one winged angel" line out of the last chapter. Hot huh ?nn; We've been buddies for 9 years, now that the divorice has been final for a while, i thought it time to at least experiment with slow&steady dating again. I thought that was sweet of her to help me with a romantic line. She actually wrote it to me in a card ;)_

_This chapter ends early because I was already writing into the exciting part but felt it'd be a great cliff hanger. I'm almost done chapter9, so you won't be waiting very long... maybe just 12 hours or so. :) Yeah there's real trouble hehe._

* * *

C H A P T E R _eight_

**Midnight finally came. Krystal's head was snuggled up** to Fox's chest, resting right in the nutch. It was the sweet spot beneath his arm, where she was resting her head. When the alarm built into his wrist band communicator went off, they both sat up, stretching. Each offered the other a special little smile and Fox decided to break the silence first.

"How'd you sleep?" A simple question got a simple answer. She'd slept well and that was all that mattered. He smiled at her reply then said, "Are you ready to strike'em where it hurts?"

"Sure am," She said, reaching for her back pack. She was dressed far differently than the last time they were on Fortuna a few days ago. Instead of the lush blue body suit, she now wore denim shorts, a dark gray t-shirt and one of Fox's old silver vests, inside out so that it was a matching dark gray color with her shirt. She strapped a blaster holster to her thigh, checked the charge cell then strapped the weapon into the holster.

Fox grinned, watching her for a moment then he handed her a pair of dogtags. "I want you to wear these. I meant to give them to you earlier and I thought of it while you were asleep but didn't want to wake you. If anything happens to you and we're separated and you're injured or killed, this is your identification, all right hon?" He passed them to her. She took them into her paws, looking at them then glancing at Fox after that morbid explanation, then simply put them over her head, hanging them from her neck.

"Ready, Fox?" She reached to touch his muzzle gently. Another private moment shared, then she leaned forward again. Her chest was pressed to his own, as she leaned up to his ear to whisper. "I love you. Don't be afraid to say it. I can sense that you're holding back."

Fox swallowed his pride and worry, then slipped an arm about her, lifting his head, so that hers naturally fell into place beneath his chin. Warm breath on her ear gave her goose bumps, then he whispered it back. "I love you, too. I'm not holding back and I'm not afraid of saying it. I promise. And I mean it, I love you." With that, she placed her paws on his chest, slowly putting space between them, so that she could look up and gaze into his eyes. They moved closer once more, until their lips met again, if only for a moment.

After the shared kiss, she licked her lips, smiled, then nodded towards the tank, outside their tent. He grinned, glanced about furtively, then hooked his left paw around her shoulders, suddenly scooping her legs up with his right arm. She gasped in surprise, kicking her legs a little then she gave him a dazzling grin. Fox carried her through the tent opening, ducking only slightly before stopping in front of the Land Master.

"All right, Good-Sir-Fox, that will be quite enough, M'Lord," She said in a soft teasing air. A grin tugged at the corner of his muzzle and he lowered his right arm, letting her feet back to the ground. She climbed up to the cockpit and sank into the rear-facing chair. He joined her quickly, pulling the canopy shut and booted the tank computer.

It only took a moment, running through a basic diagnostic, before the controls became responsive. He turned it about and began plotting a course towards the Venom Base near where Andrew had disappeared. The Tank lurched forward, heading for the base. "So if the main doors are open, we're just going to use the tank to clear the whole place out?" She asked to double check on the plan.

"Yeah but I doubt we'll have it that easy. Besides," Fox mused, starting to hide away his personal feelings again, "I'm kinda hoping we're not going to see another abandoned base full of bodies again. I kinda like to get paid for the work that I do and if they don't give me work, I don't get paid."

"At least we had this time together, I think we needed it," She said.

"Yeah," Fox said with a light blush under his facial fur. "I... You're right. Sorry. It's not like I have issues or anything, I'm just not used to mixing business with pleasure, you know?"

"It's fine, Fox. Let's not have you dwell on it… I don't mind keeping our romance behind a bedroom door, if that's what you're comfortable with," She said with an endearing voice of promise. He smiled to himself, glad for her understanding. Although the word 'romance' half-way made him cringe. He'd never thought of it like that, just a new relationship.

The ride lasted for several more moments before they were in view of the base. His mind, however, was still unable to focus on the mission. He finally cleared her throat and said in a somewhat 'official' sounding voice, "Krystal?"

"...Yes Fox?" She closed her eyes and opened her mind. It was blinded by love and the booming feel of her heart, but she could sense something about what he was going to ask and held her breath to wait for his next inquiry.

"I know this sounds sappy," He said with a nervous chuckle, "I'm almost 28 and I feel so adolescent but I'm also a pretty traditional man when it comes to my ideals on life and love, so, I mean," He trailed off, horrified that he was suddenly rambling.

"It's all right, Fox. Relax yourself and just say it," She told him directly. The tank rolled to a stop, parallel to the side walls, with its stealth mode running. He engaged the parking brake, then pressed the button to cause the seats to swivel about and face one another.

"I don't even know how to ask? Should I say "do you want to go out?" or should I ask if you want to "be my girlfriend?" or ... I know this sounds completely ridiculous. I'm not trying to..." He was interrupted by her index finger upon his lips.

"Yes. I'll go out with you and be your girlfriend," She replied in a matter-of-fact tone. She then replaced her finger upon his maw with her own lips in a soft kiss. The kiss lasted a moment, but this time she was the one who gently broke the physical engagement. "It's been a frustrating year and a half. I want this relationship with you to work. And I know that it will. But I also don't want to hold you back from doing our job."

Fox shook off the shell shocked effect, licking his lips for a moment before telling her, "I guess I just don't know how to act in a relationship. I didn't have parents to ask about dating in high school. Mom was gone and dad was on missions. Then he was gone and I had to finish my senior years and the last thought on my mind was about girls and," once again, she brushed her fingers over his lips to quiet him. He rarely rambled. It was obvious he was nervous, she didn't have to use her telepathic abilities to know that much.

"I love you, Angel." She leaned up and kissed his forehead. Then, to break the tension of the moment, she added, "Now let's go kick some Venom arses." Fox couldn't help but break a smile at her words. Both statements. He always worried that he might be paranoid of taking his future mate on a mission but here they were and he looked forward to being by her side while they fought against the Venom Base.

"I... I love you too, Krystal. I've needed this badly and never knew it," He told her. He had to harden his heart before he walked onto that battlefield, else Cupid would get shot right off of his shoulder. This was all just... so new. He shook his head slightly, to loosen himself up and clear his mind. Then he patted her cheek with a grin. "All right, let's do this," He said in a revived commanding voice. He hit the button to put the chairs back to back once more, then put the tank in gear, releasing the brake.

The Land Master III moved forward again, racing along the massive metal wall, until it came to a concrete section. Before long, they came to the massive front gate at the edge of the Fortuna RainForrest and to Fox's dismay, the gates were open and the base was silent.

"I have a bad feeling about this, you?" He asked her.

Krystal shook her head slowly then replied, "I can't sense anything as of yet. It may be abandoned. But my woman's intuition is telling me that we've got to keep our senses sharp."

"I don't have much on the scanners, but the bio-signs are showing that this place is downright populated. Do you think we should call Pepper for orders?" Fox's inqury sort of shocked Krystal. He'd never ask her about making a command decision before.

Finally, she shook her head and answered, "He's going to want details. If we're sitting outside, we don't have any to offer, so... I guess we should do that first."

Fox nodded. "Let's get it done. I'm going to try something first," He said, then opened a channel to Slippy. The rotund frog filled a small spot on the dashboard, his scaled down head floating just above the communication controls.

"Hiya Fox, gotcherself stuck again?" It was a joke reminisant of his outstanding help during the Sauria mission.

"Funny Slip," Fox mused, shaking his head. "I want to know if we can set up these sensors on the Tank to scan the area. I want to see if there's any airborne disease in the area. I'm not trying to catch this stuff. Is it possible?"

"Way ahead of you!" Slippy said boisterously. "The base is abandoned. Our sensors on the Medical Ship show that it's completely void of life. However, the second stage disease is in this base. That means it's not airborne so if you go inside, don't drink the water or get near any corpses."

"But Slippy," Krystal interjected, "Our scanners here show that the base is crawling with life forms, are you sure it's abandoned?"

"That's really weird," Toad mused thoughtfully. "I'm seeing it here, there's nothing over single cell organisms in that base, most of which show in the section where the kitchen is. It's completely dead. I'd trust the sensors of a medical ship before I trust the sensors of a new tank that only has 10 models in production, counting the prototype."

"I suppose. Thanks, Slip. I'll keep that in mind," Fox said, shutting the channel and driving in through the main gates. "There goes our paycheck. Maybe they're all hiding in underground bunkers because of the Aparoid invasion?"

Krystal shook her head. "I don't sense any intelligent thought patterns," She replied as the tank rolled through the base. A large strip of concrete lined the way through the center of the base, with parts of destroyed ships and weapons covering the ground everywhere. Fox sort of smiled at the carnage. StarFox had leveled that base on their attack against Andrew, only a short while ago. Obviously the cleanup crew wasn't very good at their jobs.

Entering another section of the base, this area was clean with a pile of scrap and trash in the far corner. It was a neat little heap, tidy and squared away. Fox came to a stop and waited for the dust cloud to settle before opening the canopy. "It can't be this quiet if Corneria felt there was a large enough danger to keep troops here, a few days ago."

"Let's look for left overs," Krystal mused, climbing out of the cockpit, taking her staff from the charger. She hopped down to the ground and pushed the staff into its spot on her belt. "I don't sense anyone. I sense thought patterns but they're so base, it might be scavenging animals here, looking for left overs."

"I don't like it," Fox muttered. "This is where Peppy would tell me things are too quiet and to expect a trap. He trusts his instincts and says I should trust mine. Right now, mine are saying that we'd better secure an arsenal in this base and have it ready for something."

She gently placed her paw against his back, walking besides him. "Should we split up and cover more ground?"

"Not after the incident at the outpost, I don't want to split up," Fox explained, drawing his blaster. She pulled her paw back and drew her own blaster, staying at the ready. The tank canopy shut and the engines powered down, activating a security defense program to keep out intruders. The two headed for a door nearby and Fox approached it cautiously. He placed his right ear against it, reaching to check the handle lever. It was unlocked.

He gave the handle a slow turn, then opened it just an inch or so. McCloud then glanced around furtively and kicked the door wide open. Thrusting the gun forward, he waited to see if anything would attack but it didn't. The hallway leading inside was cast in a dull amber color. Emergency lights had flooded the base, indicating that the main generator was offline.

"This sucks, but at least there aren't 50 armed guards ready to ambush us," Fox mused, pointing out the optimistic side of this situation. His eyes panned left to right, waiting for anything. Nothing.

He shrugged slowly, rolling his shoulders with a frown. "Weird," He finally added, then stepped inside. With his gun drawn, the two continued down the hallway, keeping their eyes open and their wits about themselves. The hallway was a slight decline, and after several meters down, it bottomed out, becoming level once more. Another door. Fox narrowed his eyes. It seems that Krystal, too, had sensed something this time. His was a bad feeling, Krystal's was something more solid.

"They're here," she muttered in soft despair. "And they know of us," She added with a touch of fear. "Don't turn around, we can't go back."

"What? Why not?" Fox asked, glancing over his shoulder into the gloomy hallway from which they came. "Trap?"

She shook her head slowly. "They want us to go back… At least, someone does. We can't go back. The trap is in an attempt at escape," She said. "Someone has cross hairs on the door, waiting for us to escape the freaks. Our only choice is to face these zombie creatures or go back outside and get shot. Apparently this is all far more elaborate than some sort of lab mistake… Whoever is waiting for us is cold and calculating. This was all some sort of plan to them; I don't know why I couldn't sense their presence before."

"Be glad someone's out there," Fox said with a sigh. "If it was a machine waiting to attack, we'd have never seen it coming and left the way we came in and we'd be dead." McCloud reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small, yellow grenade. He closed his fist around it, pressing in the small blue triggers, then smiled at her in a reassuring fashion. "Get down."

She knelt in the hallway, covering her ears with her paws. Fox opened the door and tossed the grenade in, followed by two more. He had one left in his pocket for later and for now, he shut the door, kneeling down and covering his ears as well. The first grenade exploded. Only seconds behind it, the second one went off, and finally the third. Krystal stood up, Fox standing as well. They exchanged glances in the dim lighting then both of them nodded to one another. They had to have the upper hand now; there was nothing that could have withstood a triple concussive force.

"Sense anyone?"

"There may be a survivor or two. I sense panic and confusion. I sense pain, whoever is left must be dying," She noted, motioning her paw towards the door with a grin.

Fox nodded in reply, kicking the door wide open. He bellowed, "Fire in the Hole!" then stepped into the room, his blaster drawn. Krystal stepped in behind him but both of them failed to be prepared for what they would now see. Several bodies were strewn about the floor, and some of them were still standing with jagged flesh for hands or hips or legs, from the blast. But that didn't throw them.

Fox's jaw dropped, seeing a massive door rolling open at the other end of the room. First there was behemoth clawed feet. Above that, he could see veiny legs followed by massive fleshy tendrils. These over grown tentacles quivered and fluttered in impatience. The door continued to lift, showing off broad, boney shoulders at least 12 to 15 feet across, followed by a freakishly demonic head. It was somewhat like the old beast that lived on Titania during the war, but in some ways, a bit like the monster on Sauria that ate one of the spell stones.

It wasn't as tall as either of those monsters, but it was certainly far taller than Fox and Krystal. The door shuttered to a halt, with a rusty squeak at the end. On either side, the surviving lizard corpses began to approach. At the end of the room, the massive freak stepped into the room and let off a deafening shout of rage.

"If Andross really is behind this," Fox muttered. "He's gone completely off the deep end."

"Agreed," Krystal choked out, drawing her staff from her back, re-holstering her blaster. "These lizard monsters don't seem so bad now that you've hit'em with three grenades, Fox. I think you took the wind out of their sails. I'll handle them, you handle Mister Personality over there," She said.

Fox shook his head with a sullen groan. He holstered his weapon, then reached to zip his jacket pocket shut. After that, he cracked his knuckles and offered her a nod. "This isn't going to be fun." With that said, he broke into a sprint. There was only one way he could think of to defeat this monster and it wasn't going to be easy.

Meanwhile, Krystal swung her staff about, knocking two of the four remaining corpses to the floor. She slammed the end of the staff down upon the head of one, using the quake attack but her strike didn't seem to phase the undead. Fox, on the other hand, knew exactly what he wanted to do to this beast to try and turn this fight into a very short one.

He crossed the room in his mad dash, building up speed and momentum. He approached the beast, then suddenly leapt upwards, with all his back and leg muscle. His feet came in contact with the massive gut on the beast, obviously engineered in to allow it to digest two unwanted vulpine.

He bent his knees quickly then pushed off with his legs once more, bounding off the belly of the beast and wrapping his left paw around the freakish snout. He reached his right paw down, gracefully unzipping the jacket pocket and pulling out his last grenade from its secure home, then jammed the yellow ball into the beast's snout. His paws open and a free fall consumed him.

The beast shook its head from left to right, trying to dislodge the grenade from its nostril but it was no use, Fox had jammed it too far into the snout to come free. His feet hit the ground and he rolled to the side, absorbing the impact of the floor, then he pulled his paws over his head.

The explosion was great but it wasn't enough. Part of the head was blown open, looking like a half-smashed melon. It thrashed about angrily and now unable to see it's pray. The freakish Schlazta monster screeched in protest, causing Fox and Krystal to grip their ears. Once the shrill noise stopped, Krystal glanced up and gasped. Without a moment of hesitation, she shouted, "FOX, LOOK OUT!"

McCloud suddenly rolled hard to his right, narrowly avoiding an instant death beneath the stomping beast's massive foot. With every stomp, it left a slight pock mark in the concrete floor. It couldn't see with most of its head removed. Fox pulled his blaster free and attempted to hunt for soft spots or weaknesses on the beast's legs and thighs.

Krystal activated the staff's offensive freezing mechanism, unleashing a blast of liquid nitrogen, which showered one of her enemies. She then executed a full roundhouse kick, which caused the lizard's head to shatter. The ice sculpture-like body flopped backwards, shattering on the ground. She then darted to the side to avoid another freakish, yet injured being from swinging at her blindly.

McCloud's attempts at finding a weak point on this monster, below the belt, were obviously futile. With stomping having no effect, the massive enemy lifted one of its legs then delivered a sharp kick, knocking Fox clear across the room. He skittered across the floor, rolling to a silent stop. One of the decaying corpse lizards leaned over to grab him, drawing him close to their mouth.

Krystal ran towards the Lizard and Fox, taking the staff, lifting it above her head, then hurling it like a javelin. As the lizard open his maw, to take a bite out of its fluffy pray, the pole went right into his mouth, coming clean out the back. Fox was dropped, causing him to slump to the floor. Krystal snatched the handle of her staff, snapping her body weight to the left, causing the spine to snap at the base of the monster's neck. Its eyes narrowed in threat and a hiss emanated from its throat.

She shook her head, but wasn't discouraged. Grasping the end with both paws, she put her foot up on the lizard's chest, pulling the metallic rod free, activating the fire blaster just as the large metal jewel-adorned top was pulled free from the monster. The fire ball erupted from the staff, taking the lizard's head with it, disintegrating it at point blank range.

"Awful!" she shouted, trying not to gag from the method of death. She then charged the final two lizards, with the means to hit them with the horizontally extended pole, so that she could clothesline them into a quick decapitation ending. It didn't happen. The staff hit the necks of both lizards, but she felt as though she hit a brick wall. They were such solid beasts that she was thrown to the floor and the staff was knocked from her paw. It clattered across the ground, rolling to a stop, over besides McCloud.

"This is certainly no good," She mused from her spot on the floor. One of the rotting freaks grabbed her by her throat and lifted her from the ground as though she was completely weightless. Her feet swayed back and forth but the ground was far below.

"This is not bloody good," she groused, struggling in its grip. It was nothing more than the utterance of a vituperative vixen. And Fox wasn't moving. She could sense that he wasn't dead, but he surely was unable to save her now...

The other being wrapped its arms around her waist from behind, dragging the struggling vixen towards the massive roll up door where the giant bioorganic engineered weapon was standing. She kicked harder in an attempt to get free then took a deep breath and screamed for Fox. He didn't move. He didn't hear her. He didn't even flinch.

x

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A/N: _we certainly didn't jump anywhere this time... short chapter, so i stayed with Fox and Krys the entire time. I'll have the new chapter up in under 12 hours this time... and, I know I usually follow Krystal most of the time in the Reflections Serries, but I WILL be starting with Fox during the next chapter. I'll get back to Krystal tho, i know you guys like when I follow her around with the metaphorical 'camera'. ENJOY, MORTALS:D_


	9. C9 FutureReflections

A/N: _Hey gang. Okay some quick things to address. I don't mind talking about my personal life. :) Honest. IF my band gets signed, it's better to get it out there and have it 'right' than for rumors to get half the story wrong lol._

_As far as getting this story done in 12 hours.. things got a little hectic. As some of you may know, I had a motorcycle accident which .. wasn't bad but I still crushed my left pinky and ring finger. Owies. Lol. It didn't hurt until about 15 minutes after the incident. Ironically, Krystal finds a motorcycle in this chapter and quite coincidentally, she'll be learning to ride it for the first time… expect a scraped knee and some light injuries until she learns how to make it go. With two fingers splinted, typing is really hard. I went from 91 words a minute to like… 40 XD… Not pro!_

_Glad I finished the chapter at work… now to edit it, put it up and have you guys read it… At least motorcycles get good gas mileage! A broken finger or two or even three is worth the model I'm going to be driving more… 78 miles to the gallon? Are you serious? It's way better than paying an 'arm and a leg' for gas XD p-sout!_

_Oh and remember, I have 5 stories going at once… after this, I'm probably going to finish a chapter for Similar paths taken. 9th chapter and it's been up since January or something. Lol. I'm glad the readers of that story are patient :) I will have chapter 10 up in 24-48 hours. I enjoy writing this story as much as you enjoy reading it. But I'll have to start on it in the morning… I'm pretty tired lol. And incase you're wondering, 3 liqui-gel Advil really make the pain of even **my** smooshed fingers go away. :)_

_-kit

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C H A P T E R _nine_

**Fox's** **fingertips fluttered, slowly closing to connect with his palm**. His wrist quivered and he struggled to lift it while struggling to gain consciousness at the same time. His eyes slowly eased open and for the first time, he realized that he ached pretty much everywhere. Bumps and bruises all over his body burned for his attention.

The room was dark. An unknown scent filled the room and yet Fox was alone. His eyes snapped wide and he sat up, forcing his body to adhere to his will. He was alone and his chest burned with worry. His head went from left to right, in an attempt to ascertain to the validity of his solitude. The room was empty. The roll up door on the end was shut and he hurt too badly to even pound the ground with his fist.

His ears suddenly perked. A breathing sound was emanating from an object that he only now realized was laying on the ground besides him. The small round disc vibrated from its frail nature, filling the area with sound. "Fox McCloud?"

The pilot blinked, lowering his gaze and squinting through the dark to see the ovular shaped metal article on the ground. He snatched it up, scrutinizing the metallic entity with a frown. It vibrated again, buzzing with fragile disdain like the rattle of a nearly blown speaker in an automobile.

"We have her in our laboratory, Fox McCloud," claimed the voice. Fox could feel the anger coursing through his body. They were using her against him the way his enemies used _everything_ against him. And yet the voice continued without concern. "A woman is a powerful bargaining chip, Mister McCloud. How quickly you comply with my demands will determine a great many things."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" Fox bellowed in disgust.

The voice continued to rattle from the small metal disc, speaking overtop of his shout. "If you complete the objectives, we will have no need for her. If you do not, she will complete them in much the same fashion as the lizards you saw earlier. But not before we make a few changes. Oh I'm sure you're quite curious as to what we would change, but as bright of a chap as you are, it doesn't matter if you try to figure it out; I plan to tell you." Fox continued to make a fuss up to this point, finally growing quiet to listen in horror.

"We're quite interested in her telepathic abilities, you see," the voice went on, unremittingly. Persistent, constant and annoyingly consistent, the modulated voice told him, "We wish to remove her brain and start with the frontal lobe. She won't need it any longer, if we do begin research. If you become worthless to us, she becomes worthwhile, understand? If you fail to assassinate General Pepper, she will become the new attacker. You have 8 hours before she's removed from her cell for preliminary work on her brain. Unfortunately, removing it will kill her, but we have no real interest in using her at this point, because we would really prefer for _you_ to accomplish this task."

Fox strained his aching arm, crushing the flimsy metal disk in his paw. That wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to be manipulated with the 'love leash', by his enemies. Krystal was a strong girl; he had to trust in her abilities and his training sessions with her. For now? He stood up, resolved. His body was in pain but with his mind so focused on wanting to level this base, his injures were reduced to a dull roar at this point.

His eyes caught on an object on the floor. His brows lifted, furrowing in disdain. Krystal's staff sat silently upon the floor. There was no other sign of her, just the staff that lay less than a foot from his body. He snatched it from the ground, clutching it tightly in his fists.

"Eight hours is all I need," Fox growled softly. He picked his body up from the ground, mashing his finger in on the call button on his wrist communicator. It was time to call Slippy and get a plan put together.

* * *

**Krystal groaned softly. Her head was spinning** and her ears were ringing. Whatever it was that they did to her, she was still reeling from the attack. As her mind cleared, she began to recall what it was that happened. There was a man in a lab coat but she couldn't even determine the breed. He lifted the object in his hand like a gun and she squinted at the bright lights behind him, to see what he looked like. 

Then he pulled the trigger. The massive frequency of sound threw her to the ground. She lost all of her motor coordination and her mind reeled in shock. Without warning, she'd fled into the depths of unconsciousness. There was no further memory until now. She reached her paws to her head, rubbing her temples. Her ears were still ringing but the pain that made her faint was over.

As her eyes adjusted, she realized that there were old fashion metal bars at one end of the small room. Her eyes narrowed in a slight semblance of anger. "No," she muttered, "I promised I would not be a damsel in distress; Fox doesn't need one of those on his team," She cogitated under her breath. The constant deliberation of wanting to stay a member of StarFox and be a family member to the teammates was now to the point of her wanting to prove herself. She represented the StarFox squadron and they had a reputation.

Not a word of repute of necessarily being known as 'elite'. They were, however, the most cut and dry team in Lylat. No political opinions, no special cliff notes on the side. No small print. Their only rule was nothing illegal. Even that had to be bent from time to time, if it was something along the lines of breaking a misdemeanor offense. The team got the job done and she wasn't going to be a hindrance to that standing of status.

Immediately she opened her mind and searched for thoughts. They were there but it wasn't something she had hoped for. Fox was awake and he was angry. Whoever was in charge, they were like Andross and young Oikonni. She could barely even sense their presence. The simplistic thought patterns of the drones outside the detention hallway were comfortingly ignorant in an almost blissful way.

"Hm," She said to herself, out loud. When someone's race is used to having their conversations in the mind, they were apt to using alone time to speak aloud instead of retaining the thoughts in silence. "Looks like I'm going to have to get out of _this_ pinch on my own." Her first objective was to escape; her second goal was to relocate her staff and some weapons.

She approached the bars hesitantly at first, then finally found her courage and touched the metal. She expected to have a jolt of electricity to send her reeling but it never happened. It was cool to the touch, nothing more. "Odd," She retorted at the unexpected lack of defenses.

Recalling the laboratory she'd been brought through earlier, she actually had come to a conclusion that she might be put back into a glass case, to revive Andrew's uncle. She was thankful that such wasn't the case. For now, her best bet of escape was to utilize the less endowed lobe of her brain; telepathy was worthless here. This was her challenge, she had to think for herself without being given the answers and this would prove to her what her resourcefulness was really worth. She wasn't dumb but this wouldn't be easy either.

There was a bench against the wall. She approached it, kneeling down besides it. She explored the bench with her palms, looking to learn if the bench was bolted to the floor, wall or if it was free standing. In fact, it was bolted to the floor, but three of the four bolts were rusty and the bolt threading was stripped.

Carefully working the rusty bolts out with her fingernails, she put them aside then took one end of the bench in her mitts, pulling it to the side. It swiveled about, pivoting on the remaining bolt. She wiggled the bench up and down, seeing if she could loosen the final fastening but that didn't quite work. She then tried to move it back and forth, in an attempt to loosen the bolt from its threaded grip but that wasn't effective either.

At this point, she didn't know what good the bench would do, only that every tool counted at this point. She then tried a combination of both previous methods, wiggling the bench up and down, while moving it from side to side. To her delight, the head of the bolt snapped without warning, causing the bench to slide off the metal fastening. The downside, however, was her tumbling backwards. She landed unceremoniously upon her butt with her tail sitting tersely between her legs.

"Oof," was all she could mutter upon contact with the ground. That's the first time that she noticed her tail rings were missing. The small pieces of round metal that she used to keep her bushy tail under control were gone and that caused the vixen to frown. She shuttered of distaste ran down her spine at the thought of someone handling her tail while she was unconscious.

Krystal finally stood up once more, picking up the bench. It wasn't overly heavy, but it was certainly solid. She took it by the fulcrum in one paw and by the end with her other, then started ramming it against different sections of the walls. Nothing sounded hollow. She then started on the wall again, only trying higher up.

In the back corner, opposite of the bars, she finally found a hollow spot in the concrete. It wasn't flat like the ground. In fact, it was nothing like she expected the cell to be at all. It was made of large stones, like an archaic dungeon. She surmised that this base was built on top of an older structure that must have predated most modern buildings. She took the bench and slammed it into the upper corner of the wall against the back panel, one more time. The block began to crumble under the assault.

All at once, she paused her barrage on the wall, then glanced over her shoulder. Krystal half expected to see a camera in the hallway, facing her cell. She cursed herself for not thinking to look for one earlier. To her relief, she couldn't see any sort of surveillance equipment and sighed in contented reprieve. "No time for respite," She mused and went back to work.

The block in the corner continued to deteriorate until it collapsed. Chunks of ashy material fluttered to the ground, along with a few hunks of solid concrete. Krystal grinned inwardly and placed the bench on its side against the wall. Carefully climbing up and standing on the side of the vertical object, she reached her paws to the disintegrated section and cleared away the debris.

The little blue vixen pushed her paws into the hole and felt to see how deep it went. Her heart sank when she touched something solid. She couldn't tell for sure, however. Standing on her tip-toe, she reached her arms into the clearing and felt around to determine how well this concrete section was reinforced.

"Unbelievable!" She exclaimed. The word reverberated off the empty hallway beyond the bars. Unexpectedly, the bench slid out from beneath her and she abruptly reached her paws outwards, gripping at chunks of rock inside the hole. She dangled for a moment then slid free, but this time landed on her feet.

Suddenly something clicked in her mind. She blinked and glanced around. Fox must have picked up her staff. Her eyes shut for a moment and she extended a telepathic projection of herself to him. She would have to warn him about what was going to happen. The staff was an antenna to allow such, obviously a useful tool for a telepath, built by a race of telepaths.

"I see you've found my staff again. Unfortunately I cannot hear you but I know that you can hear me," she mumbled softly. On Fox's end, he could hear every word with perfect enunciation. He stood, wide-eyed, watching her speak to him as she did the first time he found this staff on Sauria.

"There's an underground Laboratory here, Fox. Please be careful. I don't know who's running this operation. But I'm willing to wager it's one of the Oikonni apes," She told him. "May you have Luck's Paw... I love you." She opened her eyes from her cell, rubbing them for a moment to get acclimated once more. The disorientation faded and she slumped to the floor, breathless.

* * *

**Fox jammed the staff into a small space** between the roll up door at the wall. He wedged it tight, then put his feet up against the vertical wall, trying to pry the door, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, he pulled the staff free and shook his head. There was nothing he could say or do about this. His head was swirling and his body ached, just the same. 

All of a sudden, the door began to open. "That was easier than I thought," He muttered, losing that edge of frustration in his voice. His head lifted and that's when his jaw dropped. "Aw, crap."

An endless sea of disheveled, flesh rotted, zombiefied corpses: the Oikonni endeavor at its worst. They reached for him immediately, almost stepping over one another to grab at him. He jammed the staff into the wall, holding onto it for dear life as the hands reached for his shoulders, neck and legs. A familiar blue discharge surrounded the staff and he could feel himself abruptly jolt away from the wall.

Seven rotting lizard husks were bowled over from the force of the kinetic energy and Fox was thrown to the ground on the other side of the room. He picked his aching body up, instinctively fleeing the other direction.

* * *

**Krystal was gripped by a moment of vertigo. Her heart iced over** and sank into her stomach. Fox was in trouble. He was in panic and swallowed by frustration. She shook off the daze and went back to the bench, trying to figure out what her best option would be. Her ears perked up, hearing someone coming. 

She sat down on the bench after slamming it up against the wall. A live guard approached the cell, carrying a bowl. He took out a metal key and opened the lock on the gate, pulling his blaster free with his other paw. "I don't trust you, so stay where you are and I won't stun you."

"You're a lizard?" she asked, raising her brows.

"I am, woman. What's it to you?" He opened the gate and set the bowl down on the floor, taking a fork out of his pocket and placing it into the bowl. The gun remained pointed at her.

"What about your race? All of you here, that have turned into those things out there? How can you stand by and watch as your race is destroyed?"

"You wouldn't know anything about it," the lizard scolded her.

Krystal's eyes widened with a flash of stifled rage. "You have NO idea what Andross Oikonni did to my world. How many BLUE vixens have _you_ seen? My world is GONE. I'm the last one that I know of; we're an extinct race, and you have the right to do something about this before it happens to you!"

"All of VENOM isn't infected, you dumb little tramp," He said, stepping back through the gate. "Ssso shut your mouth," he added, shutting the lock.

* * *

**Fox turned to a large gray box** on the wall. His eyes widened and an incredulous grin found its way to his muzzle. "Are you serious!" He laughed, reaching for the box. It was locked but it didn't matter. He took Krystal's staff and pointed it to the large gray tube that protruded from the top, heading to the ceiling. 

Firing a blaster shot from the staff, the cable snapped and ripped away from the box, showering sparks over the wall and floor. The lights suddenly dimmed to the same amber colored emergency lights that were in the outer hallway where he'd come from earlier.

McCloud used the pole to ease the electric cable away from the wall, wrapping the end of it around the staff then tugging on it. He pulled a bit of slack free from it's place in the ceiling, until it was touching the floor, then he gave another firm tug, drawing the thick cable out into the middle of the hallway.

The approaching group of reanimated corpses continued to approach. Just as the front line of them hobbled to where Fox was standing, he kicked the cable out at them, causing it to skitter across the floor. One of the rotting freaks stepped on it. The dry rotting flesh erupted into flames, causing the ones near by him to catch fire as well.

Fox grinned at his clever move then headed for an intersecting hallway to try and find a way around the crowd of smelly, rotting lizards. He had to find Krystal. The clock was ticking. If only he could find a way to get his Land Master into these hallways.

* * *

**Krystal blinked. In the middle of** her short conversation with the guard, the lights went out. She went for the bench and picked it up, wasting no time. She wedged the seating plank between to bars the squinted her vulpine vision to the floor, kicking the bowl over. 

"Ngh! I must have tripped... I can't see anything!" She lied. It was horrific. She'd never lied before but she had to utilize her means of deception to get the guard to open the gate again. "Can... can you at least help me? I think I've tripped over the food...?" She was rewarded with the click of the gate pin becoming unlocked once more. As soon as the gate opened she began to tug back on the bench plank that was wedged between the bars.

She pulled back on the board as hard as she could, waiting until he approached, blinded by dark. He leaned over some what, to reach for her on the floor, trying to find her. Suddenly, she released the board, which caught him directly in the face, sending him onto his back.

He didn't move and she wasn't sure if he was dead or not, but she wasn't ready to find out. Her mind was racing and her heart was pounding, making it difficult for her to hear his thought patterns if there were any. She stepped over him, taking the keys and his stunner, then pulled the gate shut, locking it.

"All right, clever girl... Let's find Fox, and start on a new plan of action from there," She said aloud. The hallway was short. The next door had a strange handle that she had to squint to see. Once she finally figured it out, she slowly opened the door, peeking out into the dimly illuminated hallway. A dull amber glow filled the center of the room, making it hard to see anything that was closer to the walls.

She searched the room with her mind but couldn't tell if there were any zombified creatures lurking in the shadows. Finally, she just made a break for it. "Here...we... Go!" She muttered under her breath, dashing through the gloom. The blaster in her paw didn't have a lethal setting. She aimed it forward, hoping not to see anyone or anything and once she made it across the large room, she skidded to a halt, stopping in her tracks.

Her muzzle parted in surprise and relief. A blue sort of motorcycle sat against the wall, looking to be armed with some sort of forward mounted cannon with two small round lights on either side. She glanced furtively over her shoulder, then placed her paw upon the seat. It was flush along the top of the body. She would have to nearly lie down on her stomach to ride it.

"I'm coming Fox," she vowed quietly. The keys were sitting in the ignition switch and two spare fuel cells sat in a saddlebag above the back wheel. It was only too perfect. She put her leg over the bike then flinched. Fox was in trouble again...

* * *

**McCloud lifted his paws**. The metal object pressed against his head, behind his right ear was an easily identifiable item. A blaster that could remove anything within his skull in a matter of an instant. All it took was an itchy finger. 

"I didn't think there was anyone left alive down here," McCloud chuckled nervously.

"You know what they say," the voice replied, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." Fox slowly turned around, keeping his paws up, until he could see Andrew Oikonni in the dim yellow illumination. To his surprise, the ape was wearing a lab coat.

"Well that was no surprise. I guess Krystal ruined the end of the story by telling me you were going to be involved," snorted the vulpine. "Go ahead, Andy. Squeeze the trigger. I know you're dying to do it. You want to avenge your uncle the way I wanted to avenge my own family. Eye for an eye, I guess. Go on, now. Make it quick."

"No!" Andrew protested. "It would be revenge but it wouldn't be the revenge I deserve! Kneel, McCloud. NOW!"

Fox shrugged and lowered to his knees, placing his paws upon his head, Andrew lifted his foot, shoving McCloud down to his back with a kick in the shoulder. "Tough guy, eh?" Fox sneered, glaring up at him.

"You have _no_ idea!" Andrew shouted. His voice cracked in an adolescent way, causing Fox to smirk. Oikonni narrowed his eyes, pointing the blaster at Fox and firing. The discharge lanced out, putting a hole in the concrete besides Fox's head. Concrete chips pelted his ear, causing it to twitch.

"Point well taken. I thought you wanted me to go and do some stupid assassination or something?" The pilot said with a measure of nervous laughter.

"We've got a small problem," Oikonni sighed. "Our bait has escaped. So the plan has changed. You're the bait now. Once we find a way to contact her, we'll let her know that you've got only 7 hours left to live and she has to pull off the mission without help in that time."

"Oh, giving her my countdown? How thoughtful of you," Fox chided. Andrew delivered a strong kick to Fox's gut, causing the furry mercenary to curl into the fetal position with a groan.

"I'm thoughtful to let you live," Andrew snapped, "So shut your mouth! I'm letting you live so that I can rub my genius in your face, then I'm going to let _him_ kill you!"

"Who, your boyfriend?" Fox replied, sitting up slowly.

"Wh-what!" Andrew balked in surprise. "Y-you shut your mouth!" he said, stomping his foot on the ground before kicking McCloud again. Fox grunted once more, wondering how much more abuse his body could take before it gave out on him. "Now you come with me. If you try anything funny, you'll be seeing my greatest experiment from a window in hell!"

Fox raised his brows, coming to his feet once more. He shook his head with a dramatic sigh. "Fine, fine. Let's go."

"I hope you know we have a shoot-to-kill order out on your pretty little girlfriend," Andrew mused, giving Fox a shove, towards the next hallway. "This way, you fool! I surely want your death to be on _his_ hands. He deserves it."

"Whatever," Fox grumbled, heading down the adjacent corridor. The walk was of poor conversation but at the end of the hallway, when Fox opened the door, he could literally feel his heart stop. A body in the middle of the laboratory caused his mind and body to lock up.

"And now you see," Andrew gloated, pointing to the large cryogenic chamber in the center of the room. Large wires were attached to it on all sides. Bubbles floated upwards, within the liquid-filled prison of glass. Inside, wires went into the nose, mouth, ears and to a patch that rested over the heart of Andross Oikonni.

"He's not revived yet," Andrew noted. "But he will be completely restored, in a matter of hours." Andrew smiled, seeing Fox's rage boiling. The smaller vulpine suddenly turned around, throwing a punch at Andrew, but the half-breed ape simply gave Fox a shove, knocking him over. Fox was in too injured of a state to be a worthy combatant.

"I may not be the best pilot," Andrew shouted in rage, "but I am part gorilla and you were recently kicked like a worthless toy doll by one of my pets; SHOW some respect, Fox McCloud!"

Fox narrowed his eyes, from his position on the floor. "Or else what?"

"Or else," Andrew told him with a more personal tone, "You're going to end up like your father _before_ Uncle Andross is fully revived."

"So how did this crap come about?" Fox asked, coming to his feet slowly.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Andrew snapped. "But since you're curious about the man who will end your life, hand to hand, I suppose it won't hurt to tell you." The half-breed ape shook his head slowly and said, "Uncle Andross was dying. He found me on Fortuna, after the Aparoids attacked my ship. They said I was the first casualty of the Aparoid War. Hogwash, I'm here!"

"Back to your uncle?" Fox asked, taking a slow step back. Andrew, not liking Fox's sneaky movements, unleashed another physical assault, bowling Fox back to the floor.

"Back to my uncle," Andrew repeated, continuing, "He's a strong man, stronger than you could possibly understand. He was nearly dead and several of his internal organs were failing. We came to this base and I brought him down here to the underground medical facility. Part of this subterranean super structure was for storage but we're using it to test our new weapons as well!"

"So you put your uncle into that chamber to restore him?" Fox inquired, rubbing the size of his muzzle where he'd been struck.

"Obviously!" Retorted the half ape. "I know what you're thinking, Fox McCloud... you can't believe I'm showing you this because you now know to try and stop it and kill my Uncle once and for all. But you're not going to be able to!" Andrew turned his blaster towards the cryo-chamber and fired off a round. The high power blaster shot ricocheted off the glassy surface, hitting the floor. "I wouldn't have told you unless I was that sure there is nothing you can do about his return!"

Andrew suddenly shouted, "Come take him away!" And to Fox's surprise, living guards, unlike the freaks in the lower corridors, came to grab at him on either side. It seemed that they came out of nowhere, and he had to wonder how long they'd been standing nearby, staying unnoticed.

"Not to sound cliché," Fox grumbled, "but you're never going to get away with this, not with two members of my team in this building."

Andrew ignored the comment as the guards removed Fox from the lab. The younger Oikonni turned back to the hulking man inside the tube but Fox couldn't see what he was doing, anymore. His heels dragged the floor as he was pulled through the dark hallway. This area had also been effected by the power outage, causing it to be cast into dull yellow illumination. It didn't seem to bother the lab but it was assumable that rooms like that had its own generators anyhow.

One of the guards kept a blaster to Fox's head, while taking him towards the detention section. Fox was escorted to the brig and one of the guards released his left arm, to open the cell. Fox noted that the bars were old fashion metal instead of laser bars. He assumed that the base was already generating enough power for the laboratories, there was no excuse why they didn't use laser beam bars. The guard that held his right arm, pulled the staff out of the back of his pack, then gave him a shove, so that he fell to the floor inside the cell.

The first lizard guard shut the door, locked it and grinned. Meanwhile, the second one threw the staff between the bars of the cell across the hallway which was already locked. They walked to the cell on the left of Fox's own, opened the doors and helped one of the guards out. Fox simply listened from his spot on the floor. He had a secret smile. The one thing they forgot to take was his wrist communicator gauntlet.

This wasn't over yet. He still had plans for the Oikonni family. But for now, Krystal was the only one of them who was still free, roaming the base. Fox rolled over onto his back, letting the stomach ache subside. He was sweating from the adrenaline rush he'd gotten back in the Lab. Now he had to lay there and let his body cool down and relax.

* * *

_Between 24 and 48 hours... my left hand is pretty ripped. So gimmie some time to take a few advil between writing sessions ;/_


	10. C10 FutureReflections

A/N: Man, it's getting to be worse than Office Space at work. They've got spyware on the computers now, that monitor everything you do, every click you make, every keystroke you make and analyze every time you copy something that is sent to the virtual clipboard. They also deleted AIM and Open Office from the work computer...which sucked because I had to re-add all my words to the dictionary so the spell checks wouldn't take forever. Then they took a screen shot of my "program files" and left it in my "documents" section. I doctored it so the files in question were deleted and replaced by winzip8 and I changed AIM to like a windows update folder, lol. Then I resaved the screen shot photograph... but not before changing the date and time on my computer so that it doesn't look like I modified it later. In their eye.

Also, all my stories and stuff that I work on at work were put in a folder called DRIVER UPDATES. I did this back in september and they left _that_ folder alone. So nothing was lost... but I've archived everything by emailing it to myself... I do that anyhow with the latest chapter... i email it to myself every night and play that game to keep myself safe. Until I get a driver for windows98 that allows me to use my USB JumpDrive, I've gotta do it that way. :(

They can't keep a writer down, buwahahaha. I disabled the client that monitors my keystrokes, clicks and clipboard. I'll restart it before I leave and re-deactivate it in the morning heh heh. No one spies on ME! Sorry this author's note is so long today... I kinda rushed this chapter so that I could get the story back on track... so it's a little short since I had no time, today. The next one will be really good, though. In fact, the next one will be really neat and different as well. I think you'll ALL like it. It'll be as romantic as chapter 7 and yet, it will be as sci-fi as I can make it! So get ready...

I'm starting to dislike some of my work here. Just becasuse I've been rushing to get it done for all the requests. I like the oracle though. If you haven't read Krystal's conversation with the oracle about her future, it's in chapter '12', of REFLECTIONS OF KRYSTAL. I'd added it a few days ago, during the re-write. It kicks tail, really. One reader said he was moved, almost to tears by it :)

That's pretty Pro! But it's been difficult churning out everything I wanna do without getting way off topic. ... I'm saving some of those ideas for other stories that aren't part of the Reflections Serries. (The third one will start right as the new StarFox comes out for The Revolution, so it won't be out for a while) I've got this idea where Krystal loses all her memories and Katt and Panther get into some sort of feline-family-fued for Falco. (that's some alliteration!) I'll be working on that after this. Also, I'm about to put up a new chapter for Similar Paths Taken, which is one of my most unique conceptual ideas, if you ask me... I mean really, Fox McCloud Junior and his GF, Fara Phoenixfrom the Snes/Comic universe get thrown into the universe where Mercenary Fox McCloud, son of James, and his GF Krystal both live? Then I get really wild in/around chapter 8... so if you haven't read it, well.. I've got 3 other stories besides Reflections of Krystal and Reflections of the Future.. plenty for you guys to catch pu on...

There's a good reason why I bounce back and forth from story to story...

See, boys and girls, I have spurts of hot ideas then I run into the Writers Block of Doom. And people's is like "YO YO FO'REAAAAAL, you got dat chappie yet?" hehe. Well, anyway… Here it is! I'm sorry I haven't been around for a few days. First I mashed up two fingers on my left hand (not pro!), then I get a sinus infection while I was out of town over night. I took so much stuff that I not only dried up my nose, I think I might just turn totally to dust (I mixed Tylenol Allergy Complete with Allegra and Singular, because alone, each of the three did nothing for my nose… and after 2 hours, I added another, and after 2 more hours, I added the third until suddenly, no more nose problems. The next day, I reversed the order thinking it was the last thing I may have taken.. nope… it required all 3 again. Lol. Last night, I just took the Tylenol and no problems so I probably beat it into complete submission.). Then, I spent some time with my oldest son (age 5), and read him two children's books and spent some time with him: totally Pro.

Anyway, we're going to see Krystal learn how to ride something as complicated as a motorcycle in this chapter… It will not be graceful the first time without a teacher, with a heavy metal machine that's nearly all engine but with the added weight of a gun on the front… It's not going to be easy and she's not going to make it look graceful at first. I was inspired by a photograph done by some dude named "Powree" of Krystal on a blue motorcycle… it was only a COINCIDENCE that a 600 pound Harley totally owned me on Sunday. Anyway, back to the story!

-kit

* * *

C H A P T E R _ten_

**The machine weighed far more than she did. She straddled the bike and** quickly realized that it was a heavy, almost cumbersome machine. She placed her left foot on the bar, trying to determine how the gears worked with the clutch. She couldn't actually find the clutch at first. Following a cable coming out of the left handle bar, she realized that it disappeared into the engine casing. It didn't take more than a few moments for the girl to figure out that tapping it a few times would run through the gears, lifting up on it with her toe would pull the gears back through the numbers and that Neutral was between first and second, because the little "N" that flashed on the dash when she played with it.

The clutch and that would surely take some getting used to. She wasn't yet sure what the peddle beneath her right foot was used for so she eased into it. There was a light hiss for the rear tire and she decided it was part of the brakes.

"No time like now to learn a new skill," She decided to herself. Kicking the ignition bar, the bike rumbled to life but it wasn't as loud as she thought it would be. It had a throaty growl to it but in truth, it was not as consuming in volume as she would have previously assumed. Some how, the bike's engine was only about as loud as plain conversation, if not just a few decibels more.

Tapping her left foot, the bike went into first gear and she released the clutch slowly. It began to roll forward and she eased the right handle bar to give it a bit of gas. Releasing the rest of the clutch too quickly, the bike immediately jumped forward which surprised her. Before she realized it, the engine stalled and she had no time to acclimate her mind and paws with where the braking system was. Her head lowered to the right handle bar and when she glanced back up, she braced for the impact with two more machines that were off to the side, out of service.

At the last possible moment, Krystal turned the bike to the right, hard. The heavy machine tipped to the left and she tumbled over. The bike came to rest over her leg and she hit her elbow on the ground. The vixen came to realize that shorts and a t-shirt with vest was a poor choice of clothes for such a machine. Something with padded sleeves and pant legs would have been a better choice.

She attempted to lift the bike in this position but her efforts were futile. After a moment of struggling, she wiggled out from beneath it, then lifted the machine back upon its wheels. "MY aren't _you_ a cumbersome beast," groused the azure furred fox with a distasteful kick at the machine. "All right, you and I are going to have an understanding," She announced to the bike. Once it was back on two wheels, she eased her leg back over it, ignoring the pain of her scraped knee and elbow.

Her second attempt on the motorcycle began with putting the bike into neutral. She walked it back from the other machines, which were now sandwiched together and scraped up. She turned the handle bars and put it back into first, trying to let off the clutch more slowly this time. The bike idled up to what first seemed like a formidable speed. She finally had the clutch all the way open and the machine took her from one end of the massive room to the other in no time.

The problem came when it was time to stop the bike. She hit the front brakes and lowered her feet to the ground, trying to keep the bike stable when coming to a stop. Once it came to a stop, she realized that the balance was difficult to keep at low speeds and the weight carried her over again, once more pinning her leg beneath the metallic beast.

She quickly realized that there was a fine line between graceful, refined elegance and whatever it was that she was doing. Unceremoniously upon the floor once more; this time, the bike had flopped over and smashed her paw between the handle bar and the ground. She flinched, recoiling her paw in pain but didn't let out a single sound.

From the pain of the bike's flat ended handle bar that practically crushed her paw, she literally shoved the machine off of herself in disgust. Her adrenaline was the only thing that allowed her that ability and she immediately felt overheated. Rolling onto her back, she lay there a moment, with her head besides the machine, just letting her body relax. She'd seen this machine used before on the Cinemas that Fox and his team were occasionally fond of, and actors made the metal beast look simple.

"You're a nasty brute, aren't you?" She mused in that classier, drawn out dialect that was slightly more refined sounding than the way Fox and his crew spoke. (A/N: _Think British, remember_?) It was only a few minutes before that odd junkie feeling of the adrenaline faded. Her paw was beginning to hurt now and she lifted it up, in front of her muzzle, noticing the crooked pinky and swelling ring finger. "Blast," she muttered. She couldn't let the infernal metal beast beat her. She sat up and took it by the handle bars. "You keep me up and I won't keep wrecking you," she told it before standing up and hefting the bike back upon two wheels.

"One more time," She promised herself as well as the machine. She eased her body back over the bike then started it again. Since it was still in first gear she had held in the clutch, then let it out smoothly. The Bike took off and she held on tightly. Her next trick was to learn body English, in an attempt to move with and against the bike when making turns. It was more natural and logical to do so but with little experience, she was taking it slow.

Upon approach to one of the large doors at the other end of the room, a light flashed on the dash and the door opened. She didn't feel ready to head into the next section yet and continued to circle the first room a few times, getting used to the feel before making the attempt to leave this momentary sanctuary. This temporary Elysium had its use but she had to find Fox. Giving it a little throttle, the bike rolled forward. She stole a glance down to the bar by her foot and tapped it, shifting into second gear. The bike idled lower but smoothly accelerated through the next hallway. And now she was off, to finally look for her mate.

Once she got the hang of it, the feel of the machine was fairly simple. The hardest part was knowing when to change gears and making sure she remembered to hold in the clutch before tapping the gear peddle on the side. She dropped into third, but wasn't driving in a complete hurry. Krystal wanted only one thing… to find Fox. Mastering this bike was second on her list, rightfully so.

Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when a holographic field opened up directly in front of her muzzle. The holographic targeting reticule seemed to lock onto something up ahead, that she couldn't see yet. A trigger beneath her right thumb began to flash.

Krystal blinked twice, still zipping down the hall, switching into 4th gear. She finally mashed down the button and to her astonishment, the motorcycle shuttered and a plasmatic bolt of energy lanced out from the front. She squinted to watch the projectile disappear into the distance. Without warning, there was an orangish flash in the distance. As she grew closer to it, she realized there was a gun emplacement in the ceiling that had been destroyed.

Her jaw dropped in amazement but a smile quickly became evident. If she could manage to master the machine, with an easy offensive system to operate, the bike would become worth the effort for her to invest time learning.

Two more targets caused the holo-projection grid to appear above the dash once more, directly in front of her nose. She could actually see the room, looking through the floating grid, the way the bike's computer saw the room. Up ahead, there were two targets on approach and she was heading right for them.

Once more, the trigger under her thumb on the right handlebar began to flash and she pressed it. Again, a plasmatic flash erupted from the cannon on the front end. But this time, it split into two separate objects, veering left and right simultaneously. Krystal's eyes widened, seeing both flashing energy masses made contact with their targets, slamming into both at nearly the same time.

A terrific flash occurred and yet the holographic projection displayed the hallway in a wire-based, texture-less polygonal image with a dark background, to keep her attention from the bright burst of fiery explosion that she was passing through before she could think otherwise.

After passing the two targets, she glanced over her shoulder quickly then shook her head in disbelief. Krystal had managed to destroy two robotic sentries. The strangest part of the entire situation was the fact that this base seemed to lack robotic sentries up to this point. All the enemies she'd seen until now, minus the man in the lab coat, were corpse monsters like the others.

She was, however, glad for small favors which started with having found that bike.

The light on the dashboard from earlier began to flash again. Up ahead, the double doors leading into the next hallway swished open. Her eyes widened, seeing that the flooring was under construction. She didn't have time to act and braced herself for the damaged flooring. The pot holes and horizontal lines shook her hard as she went over them.

She had to learn body english that would keep her from loosing traction. She eased up, standing on the pegs, keeping the bike from toppling over by easing away from the direction that the bike started to lean. Her heart was racing and her eyes were wide, looking ahead to anticipate every movement that she would have to make next.

Her knuckles were white beneath her fur, gripping the handlebars so tightly. That's when her heart went into her throat. Her mind reeled to come to terms with what caused her body to react in such a way and that's when it hit her, there were laser bolts dashing passed the bike and hitting the ground on either side. She instinctively leaned away from one of the shots, moving the bike to the left and narrowly avoiding it's wrath.

She couldn't seem to get the bike to accelerate any faster and squinted her eyes for a moment to think of how to approach this logically. It was a gamble to put her attention elsewhere but logically it was the best way to figure out a plan.

She reached her left index and middle finger out, closing in on the clutch until it touched the handle bar. She then put the bike into third gear, thinking that if she could slow down, cause the tailing enemy to slow down, then speed back up, she'd have a better chance of trying to lose it.

That wasn't the case however. To her delight, putting the bike into third gear actually caused the bike to jump forward, redlining it towards 6,000 RPM as soon as the clutch was re-released. The bike shook violently over the bumps and cracked concrete but using her body to lean and absorb the shock by standing up a little, on the pegs, she was able to manage getting through it.

The doors at the end of the hallway swished open and she was through it so quickly she didn't know what to do. A small warning light began to blink on the dash, demanding for her to shift back into 4th gear. She blinked, then pulled the clutch back in, tapping the gear peddle once more. The noisy engine sound dropped back into what the bike felt was more comfortable and her rapid rate of acceleration tapered off into a constant rate of velocity.

It was then that she realized the two small mirrors on either side, above the handlebars. She squinted at them in the dark yellow emergency lights that dimly illuminated the hallway and realized that she was still being chased. Her eyes went back to the path before her and her heart stopped. There was a drop and she was racing towards it so quickly she'd never be able to stop in time.

There was a feeling of weightlessness. Her bangs lifted, her tail lifted and her vest ruffled, filled with air at the incredible rate of descention. She wanted more than anything to close her eyes but her body wouldn't allow her that comfort. The fall seemed to last forever. It was incredibly slow paced and out of the corner of her eye, an orange light flashed on her dashboard. There was a beeping sound but it was distant, dull and muddled sounding with the slowing of time around her.

She lived every millisecond as if it was over three full seconds. The wheels rotated beneath the bike and there was pitch darkness all around her. How long was this fall? How deep was this drop? Would the concussion kill her? Would the shocks take it? Would the tires burst? Would the gas tank beneath her seat rupture and blow her into oblivion?

The closer the ground became, the more rapid the orange light flashed. Her mind had become disoriented and distance and time and space all seemed foreign. The ground rushed up to meet her and the tires took the landing gracefully, causing a dull murmur of grunting shocks. The drop wasn't quite as far as she thought it was... time sped back up and the churning back wheel caused the bike to move forward again.

Quite suddenly, her mind fell into the zone of focal perfection. Her attempt at logic and thinking disappeared and her mind shifted to become the audience of her body's actions. She watched through her soft sea green eyes as her body ran on instincts now. She had no control over herself, she could only watch and be amazed.

Her paw pulled in on the clutch once more, dropping down to second with a double tug of her toe on the clutch bar. The bike jumped forward, increasing in speed as reddish orange bolts of plasmatic energy fell like raindrops around her. She eased her body to the left, leaning the bike into the direction, then leaned back, to keep it from tipping over at this speed, so that she could nimbly avoid the lethal shower. The motorcycle danced between the raindrops, narrowly avoiding each one.

She went into third, releasing the clutch once more and eased into the handlebar, leaning the bike to the side. Everything in her body was working together now. She shifted her body to the left, placing her right butt cheek up on the edge of the seat, while leaning the bike so hard to the right that the foot peg was grinding against the concrete.

She took the corner, heading into the next hallway with such incredible grace that one would have thought she'd been riding her entire life. Forcing the bike's weight back to a perfectly vertical position was far more challenging, but she stood up on the pegs, to get the balance corrected. She then dropped back into fourth gear, glancing over her shoulder just in time to see the flying sentry droid slam into the wall, not taking the corner quite as quickly as she had.

It didn't explode, but instead, ricocheted off the wall and dropped altitude, bouncing off the floor a few times before flopping to a stop. The malfunctioning bot simply lay there in silence. She put her eyes back on the corridor in front of her, following her instincts. They were leading her to Fox, on the other end of the base, in detention block "F-9".

* * *

**Andrew narrowed his gaze**, clinching his fists. There were only precious hours before his Uncle would be ready to wake up. If the little blue fox was still on the loose, he was going to have problems. Turning back to one of his officers, he gave the nod of an order.

"Where is she now?" He asked, trying to keep his voice down, keeping a relaxed air about himself. He was in no position to be a leader if he couldn't maintain some sort of calm and he was trying his best, but it was difficult. He was so very excitable and it annoyed him.

"Sir, she's in sector F-6, heading for McCloud's location," replied the marmoset in a gruff voice.

"It interests me in knowing how she can sense and find him so easily. I'm curious," Andrew said, tapping his fingers on the arm rests of his chair. "Can they speak to each other telepathically? Do they have that ability?"

"I don't know sir," Said the chimp in modest moderation.

"I want to find out, let's play with our guests," Andrew chuckled softly. "Take her down."

"As you wish," came the monkey's harsh-toned reply. The marmoset pressed a key on the controls and both he and Andrew watched the view screen with a great amount of interest.

* * *

**Krystal's bike was becoming a fabulous** second love. She was learning the physics of the machine but keeping it in motion was far easier than controlling it in extremely low speeds. She glanced behind herself and the latest pair of attack droids had disappeared, breaking off the chase.

"Hmm," She mused aloud, "that's odd. I thought for sure they weren't going to give up." Without further warning, an orange bubble engulfed the bike and a large net dashed across the hallway, springing into action. Her eyes widened, quickly dropping to glance at her dashboard.

All the displays and readouts on the dash had dropped to 'zero' and deactivated. The bike was just beginning to decelerate at the moment it plowed into the net, throwing her from it abruptly. She was stuck to the net as if it were made of super adhesive fly paper, which was cushioned enough to absorb her impact without injuring her. The bike was stuck to the net just beneath her.

She struggled, upside down, with her head just inches from the handle bar and her feet up in the air. Her tail was half-way wrapped around her waist and she couldn't move at all. The orange glowing bubble that surrounded the bike now dissipated and left her in the dark gloom.

"It's an EMAB, little vixen girl," Came a voice over the public announcement system. "Yes," it continued. It was obviously Andrew Oikonni's gloating voice. "It stands for, Electro Magnetic Atmosphere Bubble. We have special emitters inside every hallway of this base. I could have stopped you at any time," He explained, adding, "So I've shut down the little toy you've found; don't worry, it's not a pulse that would render it useless, I just caused it to stall out and now I'm going to conduct an experiment with you and Fox McCloud while we wait for Uncle Andross to wake up. Don't worry, my little obsession with having you guys assassinate the Prime Minister is over! I've got a new little game to play!" With that, the PA system grew silent.

"If you think you can stop me from finding Fox, you're mistaken! I will be coming for you next, Oikonni!" She called out to the silence. "But if you think you've beaten me, you're about to find out that..." A droid floated around the corner, into the hallway she was in. She paused, mid sentence, watching it approach, then come to a stop. It hovered in front of her and a small apparatus came out from the top of it, on an extended metal arm of some sort. It was no bigger than 2 feet long by a foot high, round and somewhat similar to the floating sentries that patrolled the Cloud Runner fortress back on Sauria a few years ago.

A small rounded tip on the apparatus began to radiate with incandescence, growing brighter and brighter until she had to squint her eyes. Then a beam was emitted from the tip and she quickly lost consciousness. Once she was rendered unconscious two arms came out from either side of the machine and took her by the ankles, pulling her off the net. Her tail drooped along her spine, hanging just beyond her ears, dragging against the floor as the bot carried her back towards the Lab.

* * *

A/N: _Oooo, what does Andrew have in store for our protagonist! You'll just have to wait a day or two to find out! MUWAHAHAHAHA ahem._


	11. C11 FutureReflections

A/N: _Goodness. Chapter 11 already? I JUST published this on 9/28/05 and it's one month later… wow. 11 chapters in less time than it took to write Reflections of Krystal… neat. I hate to break it to you guys, but this story is close to the end… So anyhow, the point of it is, I wanna get things lined up for the new StarFox that's due out in like…well, looking at SF1:A and SF:64, it's looking like a short time after the release of the Nintendo Revolution…_

_It's become their tradition to release bunches of their own franchise titles on the birth of the latest console... So, ya know... I'll stretch it out to 12 or 13 chapters if I can. :) _

_Enjoy…

* * *

_

C H A P T E R: _eleven_

**Tubes. Glass. Wires. Artificial respiration** units connected to each of Fox and Krystal's snout. Fox managed to pry one eye open, seeing the blurry blob through the liquid and glass in which he was entombed. Surely it was Andrew Oikonni. His ability to remain conscious in the liquid filled case of glass was next to impossible.

He could feel a presence at the back of his mind. Its calm and soothing demeanor almost begged for him to join it. His eye fluttered shut once more and he simply allowed his sense of touch to tell him what was happening. Every strand of fur was standing on end, while he lay, floating in the middle of the glass capsule. Every so often, he could feel the brush of glass against his leg, shoulder, back, arm or chest.

There was some sort of fist-sized apparatus around his nose so that the water was kept away from his snout, allowing him to breathe normally. There was something round on his chest above his heart with a wire that ran down his torso, across his tummy, down his left leg and off to wherever. He could feel the wire brushing against his fur all the way down his body and realized he was most likely undressed.

He wanted to blush but really, he was a bit disturbed at the sensation of nudity in the clutches of the enemy. He wondered where his gear was located. He wondered where Krystal's staff was located. He wondered where his communications gauntlet was located. Things weren't adding up.

"Fox… please, relax," Came a feminine voice. He knew it belonged to Krystal; there was no doubt in the matter. He wanted to answer it but knew he wasn't telepathic. The thing is, he'd never actually heard _her_ voice in _his_ head, before. It was always her reading _his_ thoughts, not the other way around. As logic returned to his mind, he realized that anything he thought, she'd be able to hear because she had that ability. For him to hear _her_ voice was odd.

There was either one of two things happening. Either she was able to project her voice into the head of her target or he was delusional. He was sort of hoping for the former over the latter. But either way, it was a comforting voice. He then began to wonder if it was simply the voice of his inner strength or something metaphorical like that.

"Fox? You're not relaxing, you're over analyzing," came the delicate voice once more. McCloud stiffened, causing a muddled beeping to be heard outside the tube. One of the research monitoring indicators, obviously. McCloud finally made an attempt to think a statement in his mind. This was the only way to test his theory.

"Krystal? I can hear you in my mind?" It was a booming voice even though it remained unspoken. In fact, he almost startled himself.

"Yes, angel. I am here," she promised. They were in the same tube together, he'd not known it until now. Their ears nearly touched, their feet at opposite ends of the tube, which was resting horizontally in the laboratory. Both rest on their back, facing upwards. Both of them were in such proximity and their heads were so very close.

Fox made a mental reply to her, in a less booming, voiceless thought. "We need to attempt some sort of mechanical malfunction to give Andrew a reason to open the capsule. I was thinking, I could try and tug on some of these wires that are running along my body, you just tell me when he's not looking and I'll do it. When he opens the tube, we break his jaw in two places."

"Oh, Fox. Such a fearless leader at all times. He's doing an experiment to see if he can understand my abilities more. He thinks placing suction cups with wires attached to them, against my forehead … will actually help him understand my frontal lobe better," she replied with something akin to a chuckle.

There was no physical laughter. Laughing was a bodily reaction to amusement. No, the sensation of laughter was transferred into Fox's mind as a wave of thought that simply showered him with amusement and joy as an almost tangible emotion that warmed his heart and mind. It was a fantastic sensation to experience another person's laughter through telepathy. Whatever it was that caused it, had Andrew walking away from the tube to gawk at the strange numbers and symbols on a computer screen at the left end of his workstation.

"Wow," Fox mused in thought. "That… was incredible. What just happened?"

"Mm, I shared a sensation with you," She explained. "It warms my heart to know that you enjoyed it, Fox. I feel it every time you're happy in my presence. But you need to get use to the feelings. A compassionate person consumed by despair and hurt can literally take your breath away."

"So just laughing at your own joke made me feel that way?" Fox thought in his mind. She heard it and replied, placing her voice back into his head.

"Yes," She answered. "Laughter is a physical thing. The mental reaction that causes laughter is an emotion that I transferred into your brain. Even the simplest emotion can be a powerful thing, my love. Laughter can cure powerful ailments. But your mind is not used to multitasking two different emotions at once. It's difficult to do, as it is… Being surrounded by emotional people can even affect my own mood."

"So," Fox tried to understand, "Because you put a simple sensation of joy, inspired by the simple act of laughing at your own joke, this laughter is transferred into the emotion of joy, however small that joy is, and the joy was put into my mind. But because I'm simultaneously feeling relief at the fact that we're together, it's added with the emotion of your simple joy, creating a flood, or rather, a sensation of pure and positive emotions… which caused that incredible feeling to come over me?"

"Yes," came her reply. "Anything as simple as laughing at one's own joke can cause slight joy to be experienced. But to give you that sensation, to share it with you, causes you to experience the joy, however small, in your frontal lobe. You're not used to feeling emotions in any part of your frontal lobe. It's quite a wonderful feeling. I can sense, now, that you're enjoying this lesson in telepathy."

"I am," Fox admitted freely. "But how is it possible?"

"Through Andrew's attempt at studying me, he has these wires running from my mind to your mind," She explained in wordless detail, informing Fox in a way that allowed him to garnish more information than just the unspoken words. He could understand her entire intent and all the intended thoughts, regardless of the words placed into his head.

Fox remained silent in thought, clear of mind, to let her continue her explanation. And so, she did. After reading Andrew's thought patterns, she already knew what he was up to, and explained her findings to Fox. "I believe he has wired our heads together in an attempt to see if he can answer one question: Can we talk to each other mentally. He saw me heading through the base, towards you. He somehow thought you were telepathically telling me where you were. Then he questioned himself, wondering if that's how you were able to defeat his uncle, him and the rest of StarWolf back during the war. He thinks you might be telepathic as well and wants to know before he tries to face you again, let alone his Uncle. He's very protective of his Uncle."

"I can't hear Andrew's thoughts, you can?" Fox inquired with his inner, unspoken voice.

Krystal gave him the sensation of a warm smile, telling him, "Of course, Fox. You can hear mine because of the way he ran wires from my head to yours. It was inadvertently, coincidentally, mistakenly and quite ironic that he gave us this temporary ability over something he wanted to see if we were able to do previously."

"So now he'll see us holding a telepathic conversation and assume it's true?" Fox asked.

"The most amusing part," She told her mate, "is the fact that he's filled with confusion right now. I could never hear his thoughts or feelings before but somehow, I'm able to, now. I've come to the conclusion that with our heads put together, you're an extension of my mental antenna and I'm able to get better reception. Understand my meaning?"

"Clearly," Fox replied with his own voice, straight into her mind. Her wording was the best way to explain it and even that theory was untested. Up to this point, she really couldn't sense Andrew Oikonni's mind but now that she could, she actually pitied the ape. He'd had a hard child hood, an overly demanding youth and general life. He had wired them up in a way that they now had an ability he was trying to find out if they had to begin with, and yet all the data he was looking at in the laboratory was worthless. Fox's frontal lobe wasn't developed enough to show a physical reading of response to each time a reading showed data on her own frontal lobe.

She finally offered another warm smiling sensation in the form of a wave of emotional pleasure, then said to him, "join me in my dreams. They will pass the time until Andrew grows frustrated or decides to wake up his Uncle. I want to conduct my own test… I want to be able to touch you in my dreams and know that you're able to respond."

She willed her mind to relax, pushing the depths of unconsciousness over his mind. It was a powerful sensation and had she some sort of amplifier the way Andross did, back during the war, she'd be able to will the entire room into a mental state of complete unconsciousness.

She was far from being that powerful of a telepath. But it didn't matter. All that mattered now was that they were together in dream. Fox's eyes fluttered in his state of sudden sleep. Rapid eye movement allowed his mind to be in a state where every image was shared with the images she saw in her own head, to be projected before his eyes as if he and her were in the same place at the same time, together.

In this dream, he touched her paws and she leaned forward, brushing her nose against his own. He could feel the actual mental impression as if they really touched. Her nose was cool and moist against his ear and his own muzzle was against her softly furred neck. Unlike their physical bodies, her fur felt dry to the touch, as did his own.

"We're dreaming?" He asked. The boomy voice effect was gone. It wasn't necessarily muddled, but every image and mentally stimulated sensory that was imagined caused all these sensations to feel… simply real. It was as real as a dream could make it. "I can try to imagine there's water in my dream and there will be water?"

"Look for yourself," She mused. Fox lowered his head, pulling back from her neck and blinked in surprise. They were surrounded by the warm, relaxing heat of a hot springs pool, but without the tangibly real sensation of being enveloped by water.

"If we're… really in liquid, our physical bodies are sodden and our fur is saturated with fluid; doesn't that mean I should feel wet in this water?" He asked.

Krystal smiled brightly. "Fox, don't think so much. We're shut away from physical sensation. This is in our mind. All sensory is imagined."

Fox touched his right index finger into the water and lifted it to look at the droplet of water at the edge of his padded digit. He reached his paw forward and placed it against her forehead. It ran down her cheek, along the side and bottom of her muzzle, then down her neck, glistening on the top of her fur. Because it was a dream, the drop of water never succumbed to the thousands of fur strands on her face.

"I wish I was that drop of water," He whispered softly.

"Why is that?" Krystal asked; an innocent look in her eyes.

"Because that's the _only_ way I can possibly imagine being able to know your body more intimately. By clinging to it and sliding down it and caressing it with every part of myself," He told her. It was far more romantic than he'd ever been before. They were, however, in a dream together. And without fully conscious thought, there were no inhibitions. And without his reticence, he was free to open up to her as the man he truly was, locked away within his naïve, nervous heart.

With the nervousness aside, she realized that Fox had the potential to be quite the Casanova. She was getting goosebumps from his explanation of those desires to be as lucky as a simple drop of water. It continued over her collar bone, continuing down over the swell of her bosom. "I bet you'd really like to be the water drop now, wouldn't you?" she teased playfully.

"By all means," Fox replied. "I'd be directly above your heart. With every beat, it would consume all of me. Every molecule that made up my being would be consumed by each heart beat. Each pulse would bring me to a better, more total understanding of you." McCloud's words shocked him. This wasn't like him. He didn't understand where this came from. Because they were in a dream state, their active mind was now dormant and they had absolutely no inhibitions.

He leaned close to her once more, breathing in her scent from memory. "I love you and I can't help by want you in a way that would only be worth of the word, '_dream_'," Fox told her.

"Mm," Krystal grinned in reply then whispered into his ear, "In your wildest dreams, Fox McCloud." A hint perhaps?

"I think I can manage that," replied the pilot, beaming a tender and adoring expression. "All my nervousness is gone. Is this real?"

"It's as real as you want it to be, Fox. We may not be ready to make love in body, but I'll always be ready for you to make love to my mind and heart," She replied. The two lovers' embraced and sensual bliss had them intertwined in superlative rapture. The droll, lifeless bodies in the tube both showed monitored signs of mental action. All Andrew could ascertain was that they were dreaming and there was a great deal of mental activity from each vulpine pilot's reverie.

Within the shared dream, Fox ran his fingers through her cobalt fur, drawing her close to him. They were joined; they were one. One writhing entity, in an age old rhythm of love and pure devotion. His paw raced up her back, skimming her spine, only to delve through cerulean strands of the softest hair he'd ever touched. Their hearts sang. And yet they slept in the glass tank that held their bodies motionless.

* * *

**Andrew shook his** **head. He couldn't understand** why there was nothing between them but a general activity in the woman's frontal lobe. His attention was shattered when a timer went off across the work bench from him. It was _finally time_ to wake Andross. Fox and the vixen were forgotten and a grin tugged at the corner of his maw.

Andrew passed the tube where Fox and his girlfriend were unconscious. He turned to the tube so that his face was hovering directly above McCloud's face. "And now we'll SEE who gets the last laugh!" Shouted the half-breed gorilla. Beneath the glass and water, Fox's left ear flickered, but it was a motion that was absorbed by the water, not allowing Andrew to notice it.

The younger Oikonni walked across the Laboratory and stopped before his Uncle's recovery chamber. The status readout on the screen was just clicking over to exactly 100 of health recovery as the nephew approached. "Excellent! And now you will see, Fox McCloud! The Oikonni Empire will CRUSH you!" His words were terse and angry and yet his voice cracked each time he attempted to accent a word with volume.

Over in the other tube, McCloud opened one eye to the blurry, watery world in which he was imprisoned. He couldn't see where Andrew's bubbly image was, but Krystal was awakening as well and played out the actions of the living within the room outside their prison.

Andrew pressed in on the release button, pulling the top off the chamber. Water gushed out of the bottom of the tube, splashing onto the floor, where there were floor drains to catch it. He placed both his large hands upon the metallic release handle on the top of the cryo-stasis tube and began to pull it, using all his weight against it. Slowly but surely, Andy drew it aside, releasing his grip from it and turning his attention to his Uncle.

Andross' eyes slowly opened and everything slid into focus. His eyes clinched shut again only to blink open once more, gazing up at Andrew. His massive, calloused hands lifted up and he gazed upon them in silence. His eyes lifted, focusing on Andrew.

"It worked; no problems?"

Andrew nodded emphatically, "Yes, Uncle Andross, it worked! There are no side effects or known issues according to the computer reports," The younger ape replied, clapping his palms together then crossing the Lab to fetch the Emperor's bathrobe and returning with it.

Helping his Uncle from the chamber and into the robe, Andrew then lifted his hand pointing over at the tube where Fox and Krystal slumbered. "I didn't mess up this time… I brought you a wake up gift, Sir. I _know_ I did good _this_ time…!"

"Yes Andy," Andross told his nephew, "You did well. I feel a bit sore and my muscles ache… It's the first time I've used them without bionic assistance in nearly a decade. It seems that the tissue regenerating disease did the trick; your zombies weren't a waste after all, m'boy."

The younger gorilla tilted his head and couldn't help but admit that his Uncle was still better in the Lab. "It was _you_ who showed me how to make the changes necessary to engineer the repairs, or you'd be a zombie too," Andrew noted.

"Agreed," Andross mused, turning to the bubbling tube where Fox McCloud and the little blue Senator's daughter from Cerinia were slumbering within its glass confines. "How did the Senator's daughter live through Cerinia, let alone from the destruction of my machine over Sauria, I wonder," The Emperor thought out loud.

"They're mates now," Andy said of the two vulpine creatures.

"Fitting. After the inadvertent destruction of Vixy, it was only appropriate for James to join her; they were married after all. A man and his spouse should never be apart. It would only be proper for the son of James McCloud to come to an end."

"He's his own hero now," Andrew said. "He's made a name and a reputation for himself. He's twice the man James McCloud was."

"He's half the hero James McCloud was," Andross chuckled in reply. "It took a great deal to bring that man down. It finally came to luck. I happened to find someone close to him that could break his loyalty for his own gain. What happened to that one, Andy?"

"Pigma is dead. And," Andrew shrugged, trailing off for a moment before continuing on. He cleared his throat and noted, "James could never defeat you. I'm not trying to say Fox has, but he's certainly pushed your plans back multiple times, Uncle Andross."

"I've had equal problems with James McCloud and on that note, Jim was quite an opponent." Andross tied the sash shut over the bathrobe, placing his palms upon the glass tube, glaring down at Fox. "And he died for it. It was difficult but Fox was never challenged the way his father was challenged. Jim McCloud was twice the combatant as this pathetic whelp."

"I only grew up with the recollection of losing a battle, twice, to Fox McCloud, Uncle," Andrew noted, coming to stand besides the elderly doctor.

"I once faced hand to hand combat with James McCloud over his then-Fiancé." Andross shut his eyes for a moment, then continued. "He was the most powerful adversary I'd ever faced. He had the passion and ability to destroy men greater than Wolf O'Donnell with his bare paws. It was the only time I'd felt fear for my life."

"He could take on a Gorilla?" Andrew exclaimed in surprise.

"I think we both lost that fist fight," Andross mused, then shook his head, clearing the memory. "I wish to redeem myself against Jim's son. He will not live, he's not his father. No man was his father. I actually had respect for James McCloud. This whelp was merely lucky and angry. Fetch a blanket for the female," Andross instructed, turning to grip the handle on the end of the tube. Andrew left the room, momentarily.

He gave two hard twists of the round handle wheel, until it came free of the tube's end and water began to flush from the glass cylinder. Fox's body rushed forward in the direction of the water, feet first. Andross went to reach for the pilot's throat but Fox was already awake, alert and had been preparing for this. He snatched the breathing wires and apparatus and quickly coiled the cables around Andross' wrist, then head butted his arch nemesis so hard that it instantly shattered the dictator's nose.

Doctor Oikonni reeled backwards, trying not to slip on the water that was pouring out over the floor. Krystal slid out of the glass pipe, head first, taking the edge of the glass in her paws and sitting up, pulling herself free, then placing her feet upon the floor.

Fox delivered the most intense combination punch he could muster, allowing the adrenaline beast to take over his body. He slammed his knuckles into the iniquitous Emperor's face with every fiber of weight, muscle and anger he could put behind it. He hit Andross square in his face so hard that the gorilla actually groaned aloud.

"Don't you _never_," Fox executed a well placed punch in Andross' face with every accented word, "_ever_," he continued, placing a second punch, "_Talk_" he added with yet another punch, "_about_", followed by a third, "my _father_," he sustained, "_again!_" with a fifth and final punch. The unrelenting pilot pounded away at the face of his arch enemy. Unremitting, persistent blow after blow was delivered, promising the greatest surprise attack of Andross' life.

The Doctor lost his footing, stumbling backwards into some equipment, which came crashing to the floor. Fox turned the door just in time for Andrew's return, burying a paw into his face as well, using his other to grip the boyish man's lab coat. Fox pulled him forward, off balance, and then there was a massive push, which knocked Andrew back into the hallway.

McCloud dashed back to Krystal and enshrouded her in a towel that was on the hook next to the older ape's previously used Cryo-machine, then turned back to Andross Oikonni. He was soaked. Water dripped from ever strand of fur on his body. His ears were laid back and his tail was flat and lifeless. He was ready to avenge his father for the third and final time, this very instant.

Andross picked himself up, chucking a full sized computer monitor at McCloud. The pilot's natural instincts were reflexively quick, ducking the passing monitor before leaping forward to attempt a tackle. Andross thrust his hand outwards, taking McCloud by the back of his neck before he could follow through with the offensive dash.

The dictator brought his knee up into McCloud's muzzle, then distributed a furious punch upon the backside of McCloud's head, knocking him flat to the floor. The pilot stood up, slightly dazed but ready to fight again. He went for another round of punches.

This time, Andross showed the charging McCloud what fighting a full breed Gorilla would bring. The doctor executed his own double punch, followed by a jab to the stomach. As soon as Fox doubled over, Andross implemented an uppercut that sent the fox spiraling across the room. McCloud crashed down through the tube he and Krystal shared only moments prior, causing the object to shatter. Glass cut into his back, arms and shoulders as he collapsed to the floor upon the broken shards.

Out of nowhere, Andross felt a thunderous wallop of intense pain. His head was thrown to the side and he paused for a moment to get his wit about himself then turned to face the blue vixen in the bathrobe who was holding the staff that had come off the wall from only a few feet away. While never having been hit so hard with a blunt object before, he gave a menacing glare, to make it seem like it didn't even faze him.

Andross reached his behemoth mauling mitt and snatched her by the throat then shifted his weight and threw her across the laboratory. She crashed through several large machines, which broke her fall. She sat up, stunned and astonished. Flabbergasted and astounded by his immense physical power, Krystal sat there for a moment, trying to come to her physical senses. She struggled to stay in a sitting position for a moment longer than leaned back, trying to catch her breath.

Fox, who witnessed this atrocity, dashed back to his feet and leapt for the Emperor of Venom, instinctively wrapping his muzzle around Andross' throat in the threat to bite through him like a hot knife through warm butter. The injury that the older Oikonni sustained caused him to panic, flailing his arms. Fox was thrown across the Laboratory as well, landing across a rack of mounted square devices that served a purpose little more than to break McCloud's fall.

Andross clutched at his throat and made a dash for the door. Blood ran down his wrist, from between his fingers where he was clasping his neck, trying to seize the gory lesion. Oikonni shouldered the metallic door off its sliding track, bashing it down. Andrew was only just sitting up when his Uncle passed through.

The young nephew couldn't help but notice the scarlet-drenched abrasion and moved to his feet. "Your neck has been lacerated!" Andy exclaimed.

"We need to find reliable medical help; he's strong," Andross explained, "But he's not done anything fatal," he told his nephew, then shouted over his shoulder, into the laboratory from which he fled, "THIS is NOT over, son of James McCloud! It has only just begun and we ARE fated to see one another again!" And with that, Fox sat up, blinking rapidly.

"Krystal, are you all right?" He cried, picking himself up and hobbled over to where she was, wincing at the pain of the glass remains that jutted from his back, arms and shoulders.

"I'm all right, Fox…; I can't believe you bit him!" She whimpered in worry. "Didn't you hear what happened? Andrew regenerated Andross' organs and tissue with the rapidly mutating disease that has been used to turn some of those soldiers into bio weapons! We need to get you out of here, incase it causes you to change. Let's hurry," she said, trying to sit up followed by an attempt at coming to her feet.

Once she stood, she placed the end of her staff on the ground, helping to take the weight off of her ankle. "Let's hurry, I don't know how much time we have, if you do manage to catch it," She told him.

"Can't we use one of these machines to find out?" Fox inquired.

"We cannot ascertain your health if we don't know how to work them. Let's head to the medical ship," She said, hobbling towards the door. "We've got to hurry," she muttered, expressing a sense of urgency. "It's hard to tell if it will affect you at all, since Andrew changed it, but there's no use taking our time. Come on, let's try and find that blue bike again, we'll use that to get out of here, quickly."

"Blue bike?" Fox asked, blinking twice. He didn't know about the wheels she'd secured earlier. All he knew is that he was willing to follow her. All she had to do is find out where they placed the motorcycle or if it was still in that sticky net a few corridors away from their current location.

The door swished open and Krystal narrowed her eyes in concern, shaking her head. "What is it?" Fox asked her but she couldn't reply. He simply shook her head in frustration. Fox peered out into the hallway and groaned, "Great! They set fire to the hallway! Goddess in heaven; let's find another way out!" He grabbed her paw and the two of them hurried through the Laboratory, now trashed from fighting.

Fox winced in pain from the glass in his body and Krystal's hobbling was growing better now that her ankle wasn't hurting as much as it was when she was first thrown. There was one back door that led towards the emergency exit of the base. Krystal readied her staff while Fox forced the door open with a shoulder attack.

Both of them stood in the doorway with gaping jaws. Behind them was a consuming fire but before them was a corridor blocked by dozens of undead, ghoulish soldier guards. Their macabre, garnet stained fangs were dripping with bloodlust."

"This is it, Krystal," Fox told his mate. "This is the big one. If we survive this, I'm tacking on some serious fees to Pepper's bill. But we're never going to survive this."

"We have to survive this, Fox," bemoaned the exasperated vixen, "we must!" After all, Andrew had plans to attack the Capitol Building, the Prime Minister's office, with these freakish beings if they didn't put a stop to them. There was no alternative; they had to survive or all would be lost.


	12. C12 FutureReflections

Long Author's Note, today.

Go ahead and skip it if you don't wanna read it.

It's 4 pages. Sorry, I ranted.

My bad.

A/N: _Here's a super secret spoiler for the end of this story: "nobody dies." Lmao! Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have no right to kill off these characters in the Reflections Series. Why? Because I'm purposely trying to write it as what might have happened between each of the games. Why can I claim that? How? Because, I analyzed all the words and the way the characters treated each other in the games. It sounds like Panther already knew ABOUT Krystal… she's from another system, so how did she become popular? Did she make the news as Team StarFox's new pilot? I highly doubt the news would care, unless they found out she's extra terrestrial. Then it might be something, but none of the other characters seemed to give a damn or treat her like a celebrity so I wrote that she bumped into StarWolf but not Panther directly. _

_Of course, I had them with the Prime Minister to do two things… one, help cause war to happen since SF:Assault starts with War, and of course, to have StarWolf placed when StarFox shows up to Sargasso and no one is there except for Ruffian. _

_Krystal acts as though she's very strong and sometimes independent and other times reliant on Fox. So I came up with the MeteoLand Scene. Of course, taking Krystal to shop on Corneria caused her to get those 4 strands of her hair dyed aquamarine, since Namco gave her that, as well as white beads and matching white fingernail polish. _

_She has a more aggressive personality, shouting "HERE WE GO!" on Fortuna at the beginning of ASSAULT, but we don't know what her personality is like, to begin with, except for a few minutes at the end of ADVENTURES, because she snatches the Staff away from Fox, exclaiming "My staff! You're back!" And ignores him when he's like, "…hey!" And of course, she calls for it at the beginning when she looses it and snatches it back at the end, so I wrote the Oracle scene at the end of Reflections, where the Oracle gave her a weapon rod that was special and encrusted with jewels and glyphic-style stuff all up the shaft, from tip to end. _

_As far as her walking around with ornamental jewelry in both games, as well as a jeweled tiara, I wanted to make her the daughter of a Senator, who descended from Royalty. Her planet was once ruled in sections by monarchs. They were a free and congressional ruled people in the present, but Krystal's family still had royal heirlooms of which she wore because they were given to her at 16 or something. _

_Finally, I went with both ages. She's 16 in her world and about 20 by Corneria standards… It takes about 14-16 months for Cerinia to revolve around its sun. It takes about 12 months for Corneria to get around ITS sun, "SOL" or "SOLAR."Because of the difference in yearly revolutions, those extra months add up and that means she's actually a few years older than 16, by Cornerian Standards. That way I was able to make BOTH types of Krystal Fans happy. :)_

_As far as this story, with Krystal and Panther having a scene… he asks her for a date or something if they made it out of the Aparoid home world alive… I think she replied something about "we'll see, if we make it out." Or something… so, I thought that, as an honorable young women of her word, she should at least give him ONE little date. Of course, there's significance to that, later. :)_

_I also wanted to portray the post-war effects of Corneria. I wanted to scare readers and show them that there is, indeed, a hard cold reality of post war and it's hard on everyone involved. She's a caring person who's portrayed as someone who runs to the sensation of distress… It only made sense for her to show concern over those on Corneria, post war. _

_Krystal's a great character who was raised by royalty however, I want to touch on a few reflections of her past before the end of this story, to lead back to why she's as athletic (after all she's running around the Krazoa Palace in ADVENTURES, throwing fuel canisters like bombs, wields a staff like a champ, and dashes around ASSAULT with no problems. She even pilots her own shuttle onto the back of GreatFox at the end of ADVENTURES, she had to learn that sorta stuff SOMEwhere. _

_Here's one thing, though… She's not invincible. She's still trying to prove she's not a damsel in distress, after spending her own first title imprisoned the whole darn time. After portraying a strong personality and self-dependant skills, it only made sense to write her as someone who's QUITE capable. After all Fox has learned with that staff by the end of ADVENTURES, it only makes complete sense that she's assumed to be better with it. Why? Because it belongs to her, she's GOT to have mastered it. She even snatches it away from Fox, confidently. She KNOWS she can handle it.. I bet her blaster shots are more powerful as well. _

_From what someone told me, her shooting at it was part of a Joke at the Rare Offices, because the final battle was supposed to be Sabre and Krystal battling the final boss and her part in the battle was to shoot at the boss with her staff, to hit him in certain places, to make it temporarily vulnerable to Sabre's attacks. _

_However, her getting named "KRYSTAL" wasn't completely set in stone… it was tentative if anything… The name KRYSTAL comes from the StarFox version where she's locked inside of a crystal prison for the entire game. StarFox Characters are known for being named for whatever the joke is, behind their character. (ChameLEON Powalski, for example. C'mon, Chameleon? We all saw THAT coming… General Pepper, still quite assumably, was a "twenty year older" version of "Sergeant Pepper." Of the beetles. Even in the SNES version, he's dressed exactly off the Beetles album cover. Fara Phoenix is pronounced "Fennecs", because she's a fennec. I'm not quite sure about Andross Oikonni and Andrew Oikonni… Let alone James McCloud. Of course, I really enjoy the huge joke of having Wolf be an Irish named O'Donnell, and Fox as a Scottish named McCloud. We all know that the Irish and the Scottish were at war with one another over religion and ONLY formed temporary truces together when it came to battling the English, lol.) So anyhow, I didn't mean to make my author's note so damn long for this chapter, but I'm making up for the next two, because there won't be much of one, except whatever little blurb I put at the end._

_I APPRECIATE ALL THE RESPONSES about my motorcycle accident. You guys are totally pro. I'm back in action, feeling much better and ready to write. Now that Fox and Krystal have a deeper joining of the heart and mind, they're going to be better prepared to work as a team. Bringing Andross back was part of my assumption that he'll be the final boss in the next StarFox. He's too classic to kill off forever… I mean look at Nintendo's history… Metroid, for example… they take mother brain away as the final boss in the GameBoy Metroid2, but bam, they revisit her layer then revisit her in the SNES SuperMetroid. It only makes sense for Andross to come back. Look at Mario Brothers… Bowser disappears for Mario2. He's back, in the following title. What about Gannon? He disappears for the first Game Boy Title, where Link is on a dream island, and has to fight the boss in the giant egg. These are all classic Nintendo Franchises, they're predicable enough to assume Andross will be back in StarFox Revolutions. :)_

_So there's a look into my logic. I hope it makes the 'reflections series' that much more understandable. No, we won't see much of Krystal's flaws or weaknesses until the close of this chapter. And she's a strong enough character, intellectually and mentally, that she's not full of psychological problems or overly sluttish or worthless. _

_Also, does anyone particularly like how I explain that she has a sort of chi power to go with her telepathy? What's the point of my question you ask? I know her staff can do things like the quake attack and stuff, which could sorta be a type of evolved chi, but a few chapters back, I have her explain that she can telepathically cause an astral projection to be formed for the user of the staff. Why? Because I explain that the staff is a technology made by telepaths, to also act as an antenna to amplify telepathy and chi powers. Word. Only a race of telepaths would see the need for a larger antenna for better frontal-lobe reception. Lol. _

_I've thought about writing stories that were perfect renditions of both games, but I dunno… it's easier to just say "go play'em." But some of the things about ADVENTURES really would do well to be written out. Has anyone else done ALL the fortune telling sessions? Anyone see the one where it becomes blatantly obvious that James McCloud is talking to Fox through them? One of them ended with something like, "Trust in your instincts, you make me proud my son" or something like that. I don't remember exactly how it was worded, but that always tripped me out. Fox is holding that staff, it may have caused James' spirit to be able to communicate with Fox for a brief moment? Who knows. I'd love to put that into a story but like I said, it's better to just play ADVENTURES, yourself. _

_I might be posting Greatest Of Three Evils, act1 (family affair) and act2 (parallel universe) soon. They're both written, completely finished. They have extra cameo characters like Kit Karamak and his team, Fara, Krystal, the team, Wolf and his girlfriend, Fox McCloud's sister, Nicky… They're both pretty long and I wrote them yeeeeears ago, but.. Heck, I'm fond of them. So keep an eye out for that, as well as me finishing The Curse, Similar Paths Taken, Nothing Passed Tomorrow and THIS story. _

_Also, I'm going to be starting on a request story soon, involving Katt and Panther as feline family members, with Falco being thrown into the middle, as well as Krystal losing her memories and learning to cope with instincts, her telepathy, and having a personality change for a short time… Should be a fun story. I'd give that one about a month before I jump into it. _

_Again, sorry for the long, 4 page Author's Note. I don't plan on doing anymore for the last two chapters, unless they're super short. I just felt chatty tonight. It's not like you HAD to read this. :) … Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this story. Also, I hope everyone enjoyed their holloween, for those of you who celebrated it. _

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C H **A** P T **E** R _tw**e**lv**e**_

**Krystal shifted her weight to keep her balance on her good ankle. Her other one was twisted but it wasn't useless. Fox, on the other hand, was still afflicted by shards of** glass in his back, shoulders and arms. Some of it had fallen out, but some of the deeper pieces were still causing him pain. Their only safe way out was blocked by rotting freaks, behind them, the massive corridor was on fire, leaving them with two poor directions that had no real alternatives.

On the wall was Krystal's vest and belt, but nothing further. She snatched them from their place, putting the vest over her torso and fastening the belt around her waist, even though there were no loops to put it through. She felt a little silly standing there in the nude, soaking wet, but there was nothing else she could do. The fire coming from the corridor across the Lab was helping to dry her fur out and she knew it was having the same effect for Fox as well.

Krystal was still in pain from having her left paw injured in the motorcycle accident earlier. It wasn't anything that would inhibit her abilities but she was certainly hurting. They stood in the doorway for a moment, watching the freakish beings approach. They obviously still had their sense of smell and their approach was rather quickly paced.

"I'm ready to go through the flames," Fox muttered. "We can't fight these and if I am screwed after biting Andross, we'll both be screwed if we go through this hallway."

"But there's no way we'll survive the flames," Krystal mused softly, backing from the door as the freaks grew closer. "What's our advantage there?"

"Red blood cells can handle a fair amount of heat, I think it's like, 110 or something, but viruses can sometimes parish to a high fever. If I got something from Andross, through biting him, my chances to survive it are better in the burning hallway," Fox said, rubbing the back of his head.

"That's an interesting...theory," Krystal said thoughtfully. Her eyes cut from Fox back to the hallway. "So I guess I should close this door now?" She asked nervously as the hallway of biological freaks grew ever closer.

Before Fox could answer, there was an explosion in the fiery hallway that caused a collapse, rendering the doorway to that section completely impassable. "You've got to be kidding," Groused McCloud, turning back to the hallway where the bioweapon soldiers were approaching. A screech caused Krystal and Fox's ears to perk up and that's when they noticed the large 2 story being stepping into the hallway, much like the one that was on Titania back when Slippy crashed during the war.

"We got our tails handed to us when facing far less of these monsters, earlier," Fox reminded, shaking his head. "Shut the door, we'll find a way through the ceiling. Let's keep that as a last resort," He ordered, stepping away from the door and beginning to search the ceiling.

"Well, how did they get all this machinery in here, these doorways aren't quite wide enough for _all_ of it," she said, pushing the doorway shut and rolling the bar into the bolt cradle.

"I'm looking for the answer to that now," Fox replied, crawling up on top of a work station and pushing up against the ceiling. "Check the floor... I doubt they built all this equipment from parts, in this room. It would be a logistical nightmare."

Krystal quickly began to overturn electronic devices, searching the floor for a drop floor that would lead down. Fox, on the other hand, continued, to check the ceiling as best as he could manage, looking for some sort of imperfection in the ceiling. "This is proving to be fruitless," Krystal grumbled, trying to keep her mind off the heat emanating from the half-collapsed hallway on the other end of the room. It was heating the laboratory like an oven, quickly.

Krystal coughed in an attempt to dispel her thoughts, but they were getting the best of her. She finally asked, "What if they built the smaller doorways after they put gear into this room. They would have to keep something large enough for new equipment or to get it out of here if they needed it, right?" She was trying not to panic. Without warning, there was a loud noise against the bolted door, one of the hinges cracked under the stress. "Fox! They're trying to come in through the door!" She shouted.

"Just keep looking!" McCloud replied, pushing up against another part of the ceiling, walking from workstation to workstation.

"Oh God," Krystal groaned. "What if they beamed the equipment in here with an auto transmission transporter!"

"Krystal!" Fox said, turning to glare at her. They last time they were sharp with one another was on top of the Krazoa Palace, when she took her staff back from him, without another word about it. "When we were in that tube just a little while ago," he said, trying to help put her mind on something else, "That was a dream we shared because of the wires that hooked our minds together, but it was still special. If we find this door, we can enjoy those thoughts tonight, over dinner on me, all right?"

Krystal blinked. Psychology; but the fact that he dwelled on how powerful that shared dream was, it warmed her heart. She nodded slowly, then blinked in stark realization. The Oracle told her (A/N: _Reflections Of Krystal, final chapter_) that she and her future mate would have a child. They would certainly live if she had the will to try. With renewed emotional strength, she shouldered over another computer terminal, searching for a door in the floor tiles.

The pounding against the door continued, the second and third hinge began to stress and the door buckled from the pure power on the other side of it. Krystal continued searching the floor when something small, the size of a fist, caught her eye. Those soft emerald oculars dilated and a grin found her muzzle. She approached the object, picking it up.

"Fox... I found a grenade," She said glancing up at him almost in disbelief. "How did it get in here?(A/N: _Reflections of Peppy Chapter9_)"

"Don't worry about it, let's not count our blessings, Krystal! If they get that door open, use it!" He ordered, hopping down from one of the workbenches he was standing on. "I'll check the floor, you just get ready."

"I know where I've looked already, let me finish what I started," She replied, handing him the grenade. It would make no sense for him to start over, it would be eating valuable time. Just then, the top corner of the metallic door began to bend down with two large scythe-like claws slipping through, bending the corner down like a sheet of paper. "Now would be good, Fox," she chided, backing away from the doorway.

Fox took the small round cylinder, squeezing in on the detonator keys. He then approached the door, shoving it down into the corner of the door, between the two claws. After that, he turned back from the door and ran the other direction. The large beast that had peeled the corner of the door down, half way, leaned over and snatched the grenade in it's snout, swallowing it.

"God, can anything else go any _worse_?" Fox shouted, picking up a small fire extinguisher from the side of a machine and throwing it through the section of the door that was now peeled back, so that it hit the beast in it's face, since it was trying to look in through the opening.

It snatched the small 12 inch canister up, jerking it's head back and forth to attempt ripping it apart. The powerful jaws of the beast cracked the metal causing it to tear. White bubbling foam gushed out, giving it a very rabid appearance.

A few seconds later, the grenade detonated from within, causing it's gut to burst. The beast flopped back, writhing in throws of death. Fox noted, in surprise, that the white chalky paste was starting to bubble on the flesh of the dead animal mutant. One of the slow moving bio-soldiers leaned to bite at the flesh of the massive fallen beast, then looked up at Fox.

It had gotten some of the white chalk on it's maw, which also started to bubble. Fox simply blinked at the reaction, looking back to Krystal with a shocked expression. "Hon?" He asked in a quiet, almost pleasant voice. "Find another fire extinguisher."

"I doubt they're going to be of any use, now that the other hallway is collapsed, "She said, plucking a larger, industrial sized extinguisher from its mount on the wall. She returned to Fox, handing it to him, not yet noticing the chalk that was burning the flesh of the being through the half bent metal door. He snatched the extinguisher and pulled the safety pin.

"Stand back, let's see what happens," Fox said, pointing the hose at the door and spraying the watery paste through the narrow opening. The white solution covered the bio-weapon soldier's face, causing it to flail about, from his eyes beginning to burn. "Holy crap," Fox muttered, "Whatever that stuff does to their skin tissue, it doesn't hold up against chemicals, what an oversight of their creator _that_ is," he said, almost breaking into laughter.

"Do you think we'll have enough fire extinguishers?" She asked, becoming the realist. "Or that we'll be able to get back out through that door, now that the hinges are cracked and the door's top corner is bent inward like that?"

"Maybe we should let them open the door the rest of the way," Fox said with a shrug, "Look for more fire extinguishers, get'em together. We've got to hurry before the fire spreads into this room. We have to hurry," He said. "I don't want to end up like what happened in my dream."

Krystal began taking fire extinguishers off the other walls, throughout the Laboratory, bringing them back, "The one where we were in the tank, and the water was starting to pour in?"

Fox shuttered, saving the milky paste from the first extinguisher and backing away from the door. "That's the one," he said, referring to her comment on his dream. He didn't want to use the extinguishing material until they forced the door down with their freakish strength. The dying soldier was sandwiched against the door by his brothers, all using their weight to push against the door. Again, the massive metal blast door began to groan from stress.

"How'd they get so strong?" She asked, pulling another Extinguisher over. Unfortunately there were only 3 full sized ones, and one more small one in the immediate area.

"We're all that strong, if we have enough adrenaline," Fox sighed. "Their mind is shut down, so there's no way to turn it off or regulate it, I think. We're in serious trouble if we can't find more extinguishing solution. This whole damn lab, you'd think we'd find something to use against them. I bet Andross and his dumbass nephew took whatever it was they used to control those things."

"We're not going to die, like in your dream, Fox." She placed her paw on his shoulder. "I know it, someone special told me we'd be together. I promise."

"ATTENTION!" Came a commanding voice from the public announcement system. "Dam pressure at critical levels!" Fox and Krystal turned to look at one another.

Simultaneously, they both asked, "Dam Pressure?" Fox then added, "This base extends under the river that runs through the jungle region of Fortuna, do you think?"

"It would make sense, powering the Laboratory on hydroelectric, even after we managed to shut off the main power to the rest of the base," She said, shaking her head somewhat. "I really don't want to have to deal with that, too."

"Like in my dream," Fox grumbled. "Burn to death, get dismembered or drown?" Fox asked allowed, balling his left paw into a fist. "We've got to get to the Land Master... Start looking for a way out, again."

"Right!" She said, turning back to the floor sections and pushing equipment terminals around to the best of her ability, to keep looking for a way out. One of the hinges on the door cracked and the door began to groan, being pushed through the doorway. Finally it gave way and flopped downwards. The Fire Extinguisher was lifted again and he emptied the container on the first two freaks through the door.

Krystal, on the other hand, was now in the back of the Lab when she saw a machine that was holding her Staff, running tests on it and other such things. Her eyes widened and she placed her paws on the staff, trying to pull it out of the machine that had it gripped at either end. A jolt of electricity coursed through her body, throwing her back but her paws, on the other hand, closed tightly. Her muscles contracted tightly, with a death-grip on the staff.

Her body was thrown back and yet her paws never lost their grip. The force of the electric current caused the staff to finally come free from the machine and she fell to her back, still holding the metallic pole, only now some of the glyphs on the shaft were burnt into her padded palms.

Her muzzle parted in an attempt to cry out in pain but nothing happened. She blinked twice, realizing that she was still alive and had the Oracle's staff back in her possession. She simply lay there, panting softly, trying to catch her breath from having the wind knocked out of her lungs.

"Krystal?" Fox glanced behind himself, not seeing her. "Are you all right, did you find something?" No reply. Krystal was laying there, trying to come to her senses. She forced her muscles to respond after having been electrically forced to contract so tightly. She ached, trying to roll over. Flopping onto her tummy, her nose brushed against something metallic on the floor. Her eyes squinted, trying to make out the details of something so close to her face and that's when surprise allowed her to gasp fresh air into her body. A hinge in the floor.

Her body ached but after having her muscles responding so hard from the electric jolt, she sat up, noting that the staff felt somewhat lighter. Perhaps it was the adrenaline in her body but she couldn't think to analyze it right then and there. She took the staff and swung it hard, clearing out another metal cart full of stupid gadgets and such, then used the end of the staff to pry the floor panel open.

Seeing Krystal stand up with her staff and use it like a crowbar, Fox blinked, setting off the other two fire extinguishers and running over towards her. She flipped the floor panel open, then turned to face him with a brilliant, almost dazzling smile. "I found it!" She simply stated.

"Let's go, they're in, we've got to be out!" He said, guiding her forward with his paws. "Crawl space! It's not how they got this junk in here, but I'm not complaining... MOVE!" She dropped down into the maintenance shaft and began to crawl immediately, reaching the staff back, unextending it, and putting it into her belt. Fox followed, pulling the floor tile halfway shut, then reaching out to pull one of the metal carts forward, trying to tip it forward, so that it would lay across the door.

Most likely, those creatures were too dumb to look for hinges in the floor, especially since it took so long for the two pilots to find it. Fox wanted to be sure. The cart began to tip forward and he pulled his body downwards, then grinned at the satisfying crash of equipment that toppled over atop the floor panel. He put his paws up, pushing on it and noted that it wouldn't budge from the weight.

The two vulpine pilots crawled in the direction opposite of the fire, listening to the muffled warnings of the automated computer system over the public announcement. "Go, go, go!" Fox said, getting her to hurry.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" She grumbled, climbing through the metallic tunnel as fast as she could. Finally, Fox grasped her ankle. "Use the staff, I'll hold onto your back," He said.

"Why don't you let me climb onto your back, you use it," She asked, thinking that putting the most weight at the center would cause them to go faster.

"No. You'll see why, when we get to the end of this shaft, now, let's do it," Fox said, wrapping his arms around her, pressing his chest flush to her back. She shivered from the sensation, but kept her mind on their survival, activating the booster often used to get its user up on a high ledge. She gripped the staff tightly and a blue light began to emanate from the staff, running from tip to hilt before projecting them forward at a high velocity.

Fox winced, gripping her tightly. The lack of control from the maneuver caused his back and shoulders to slam into the walls as they shot down the narrow crawlspace. He'd surely be bruised and battered by the time they made it to their destination, for sure. His arms around her were firm, tight and masculine. It was comforting to her, to say the least.

The pair came skidding to a halt, over a hundred yards down the tube and Fox felt too banged up to start crawling again, but he had to, there was no choice. "There's got to be a way out. Start checking panels above us," He said, flopping over onto his stomach, his ears laid flat. Krystal illuminated the top of the staff, putting the light near to his face, looking him over with a frown.

"Are you all right?" She asked quietly. Fox nodded slowly, but it was evident that he was just sucking up the pain in an attempt to look like more of a man. She leaned to kiss his nose gently. It caused him to offer half of a smile, but he hurt too much right now, to do much more than that. She then pushed up on the metal ceiling above. It didn't take very long to find a panel that was hinged. She shoved it open and lifted her head up through it to scout the area.

"FOX!" She shrieked, "The bike! It's right here!" She shouted happily. "Come on! I was looking for this and here it is!" She said in a boisterous voice. Fox groaned, moving down the metal tube, to where she now was. She climbed out of the maintenance hatch in the floor then helped him out as well. In the dull glow of the yellow auxiliary lighting, she ran her fingers through his fur, checking him out.

"Oh, Fox," She said tenderly, "Your shoulder, the one you hurt on MeteoLand," (A/N: _Reflections of Krystal, Chapter7_) She said, pushing the fur apart with his fingers, looking at the injury. Fox clinched his jaw, letting her look. "Fox, I know it hurts, you don't have to bite your tongue over it."

"I do if I want to keep from attracting more of those things that were after us," Fox grumbled softly. "I'd drive but," he paused, lifting his right paw, which was shaking from the pain that seized his right shoulder. He lowered his right paw, reaching his left up, to favor his shoulder.

"I'll drive," Krystal replied. "I'm a little rusty on my stopping, but only because I lack the balance, it's a bit heavy. But I'm confident enough to drive."

"I'm confident enough to help you balance it, at a stop. My legs are fine, I can hold it up, let's go," he told her. She took her staff and used the chilly ice blasting ability to freeze the net where the bike was still pinned up. She then paused, putting her paws on her hips.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing, give it a second," She said. The frozen strands of the net began to crack under the weight of the motorcycle. After a moment, it fell to the ground, landing unceremoniously upon it's side. She struggled to pick it up, hefting it onto it's wheels. Fox used his left paw, best as he could, getting it back up.

"I didn't hurt my shoulder as badly as I did when I dislocated it last time; it just smarts," he assured her. "C'mon," he said, sliding onto the back end of the bike and using his feet to keep it upon its wheels. She lifted her leg, sliding over the bike, then mashed down the ignition switch. Fox eased his right arm alongside her hip, wrapping his left arm around her waist. "We don't have any protective gear, so ... let's try not to get ourselves killed, deal?"

"I can handle that," she said, sliding the staff down the back of her vest, into her belt, at a diagonal angle. Unextended, it was hidden inside of her vest, out of sight. Fox could feel the lump of it against his chest, pressing up against her back. She paused to re-acclimate herself with the controls then gave the accelerator handle a twist, pulling in on the clutch over the left handle bar.

She was riding it when it was netted, so she had to shift from fourth gear down to 1st, taking off in a burst of speed. She switched into second gear confidently, heading into third as the hallway came to an end. Once again, as before, the light on the dashboard flashed and two large doors swished open, leading into the next corridor.

Again, the computer announcement over the PA system was heard, even over the whip of the wind as they raced down the corridor. "Attention! Dam breech imminent! Emergency evacuation measures in place! Please head to your nearest evacuation route or to the underground escape route in section G10, thank you!"

"You think that's the way The Oikonni's went?" Fox said into her ear, speaking loud enough to hear himself over the bike and the wind.

"Who knows, let's just find our tank and get outta here," She called back to him, followed by an immediate, "Hold on, Fox!" The next hallway opened up before them and she eased her body forward, lifting up on the pegs just a bit. Fox leaned forward, his head against her lower back, to keep tight. Her tail was against his chest in this position. The traction beneath the bike became poor. There was debris on the floor from where there'd been a battle at some point. She suddenly bucked hard to the left to avoid the corpse of a fallen Venom soldier in the middle of the floor, then back to the right, to avoid another.

She lowered her center of gravity once more, speeding up and shifting back into second to get that extra burst of acceleration. She zipped from left to right as the body count increased across the ground. Startling her as before, the holographic aiming field illuminated the space right before her nose.

"Seems we're under attack," she shouted back to him, opening fire. This time, whatever was up ahead was opening fire in return, sending bolts of energy toward the bike. With Fox's help, they moved their bodies to aid in the immediate evasive maneuvers, nimbly avoiding the lethal attack. She opened fire once more.

A large machine up ahead was racing backwards, continuing to return fire. Before Krystal could ask, Fox hollered, "Security Boss! Aim for the eyes, see if that works!" She did as instructed and took shots at the eyes but they were shielded. She tried for the hands, shoulders and center of the chest, but the attacks were doing no damage.

"All right," Fox yelled over the roar of the engine, "It looks like it's moving on a track in the floor, but I can't really make one out, try to put a hole in the ground, behind it, let's see if we can't trick it!"

Krystal nodded, moving the bike to the left, closer to the wall. She charged up the plasma cannon mounted in the front of the bike then released the shot, aiming at the ground, further up the hallway. She then shifted her body weight to the right, to avoid being attacked by the laser cannon on the arms of the large security bot.

The massive powered up shot took out a section of floor tiles, causing the robot to stumble, in a sense, as it rolled backward through the lengthy corridors. Doors opened up leading into new sections, but it never toppled over. Krystal eased back on the bike, her back flush against Fox's chest, trying to get the weight off the front wheel to take the hole she'd made with grace.

Fox bent his knees then shouted, "Jump!" She did so without question and the combined weight of their upward body thrust caused the motorcycle to bunny hop over the small gap. It came back down upon its wheels with a grunt of the shocks as well as a grunt from McCloud.

"We made it!" Krystal exclaimed, darting back towards the left to avoid another volley of laser blaster shots. She then went back into third gear, followed by fourth, causing the engine to become slightly quieter once more. She tried opening fire again, pelting the metallic burden over and over causing no harm to it. "Curses! What now?"

"Let's see if we can pass it. Maybe we can somehow find a way to attack it from behind, maybe using your staff!" Fox shouted. "Get up to the right side, then cut to the left and pass it, can you do that?"

"We can try!" She shouted, pulling up to the left and moving upwards on the machine. Before it could respond with another lethal round of gunfire, she dropped the bike into second gear, darted to the right and shouted, "Here we go!"

Fox reached his left paw down the back of her vest, pulling the staff free and extending it above his head. He pointed it back as they passed the machine. The engine screamed and a light began to blink on the dash, begging for her to up-shift. Fox targeted what appeared to be a gap at the center of the machine's back and opened fire with the blaster option built into the staff.

A well placed shot went right into the gap at the center of its back, which caused it to careen hard into the right wall, showering the area in sparks. As it slowed down, it flopped to the left, suddenly toppling over and coming to roll, over and over, until it came to a hard stop. Krystal shifted into third gear, heading for the large intersection up ahead.

She eased into the bike, shifting into fourth but still slowing down to a reasonable speed. "Which way?" She called back to him. She could feel that he was partially shrugging, with a favor to his right shoulder, and so she just slowed the bike to a stop. McCloud put his feet out, helping her to balance the bike as it slowed to a full stop. "We need your wrist communicator," She muttered, adding, "So we can ask Peppy."

"We need _CLOTHES,_" Fox said sourly. "Just keep straight, we're bound to run into _something_. This base can't go on forever. If we can get back to the tank. I've got combat fatigues, two pairs. They'll be a little big on you, but ..." He paused then frowned.

Reading his thoughts, Krystal said, "But that Land Master belongs to the Medical Ship, ours were lost over the Aparoid home world, there really is no change of clothes on the tank."

"...Yeah," Fox said in a nearly pouting tone. "All right, uhm," he simply shook his head, "Forward. Let's see if we can't find some Venom uniforms in the barracks."

"Fox!" Krystal said, looking over her shoulder at him, with an incredulous expression. "The dam is about to burst! We've got to evacuate! We have our fur, and we won't even have _that_ if we don't HURRY!" She released the brake and eased into the accelerator, heading forward through the intersection. They had to find a way out. The only good news was, when the dam finally did break, outside the base, the jungle river was going to flood the base and destroy it.

* * *

A/N: _What, did you forget that they were without clothing in the tube, last chapter? I remembered! XD If you re-read through this chapter, it reads completely different now that you remember they're naked, hehehehehhee. :Falls over: okay, I'm immature. :)_


	13. C13 FutureReflections

A/N: _holy crap. Thirteen chapters XD .. Sorry for the slight delay in posting. I'm also working on a new Sly Cooper story called Lament Of Carmelita. It starts out pretty dark. So anyway. You can find that one by clicking on my name and looking at the bottom of my profile, for stories that I'm working on. Woot. _

_Someone noted that Krystal was in a towel in chapter 11… very astute to my mistake. I went back and re-read it… and I guess I was writing while I was tired, because I didn't even take out the "X-" I use to separate sections… I later went back and put in a LINE through it. Then I bold the first few words of each new section… I dunno why I do that stuff, I guess I'm OCD about it :D_

_So I realized I meant to put her in a towel, because Andross was in the Bath Robe… Andy put his uncle in a bathrobe as the older doctor was coming out of his cryo-tube tissue repair nap thing. So yeah, Krystal was in a bath towel, to dry off or to cover her… but there's no way a bath towel is going to be used as garment, there's no pins to hold it up :D So yeah, in chapter 12, she gets her a vest and a belt and it winds up being used to hold her staff across her back… which Fox takes while they're on the bike, to fight with. Yeah, they're about to realize just how awkward it is to be in a life or death situation and be nude before one another for the first time, especially how in love they both are becoming lol. Of course, you don't really pay attention to those sorts of things when running for your life, surrounded by fire and zombies, then crawling through a vent with no lighting. Plus I just wanted to see if yaw'll's jaws would drop when you got to the end of 12 XD _

_I've got a ton of mistakes in 12, too. Like, "allowed" should be "Aloud" and "one more small one" should be "Another small one" or I could even go with "And a smaller one" but… "one more" small one, looked like, "one 'more small' one" and it just didn't sound right, anyhow. Then near the end, "she said, pushing the fur apart with 'his' fingers". Boy, I musta been tired or something. I promise to deliver less buggy writing …Eventually! XD anywho! BACK TO THE ACTION…_

_  
Carry on!

* * *

_

C H A P T E R _thirteen_

**Krystal's paws were aching from the glyphic burn marks in her palms. She pushed the pain aside **and concentrated on the here and now of their situation. She could whine about pain at a later time. Even though it was all branded into her paws, her body was in too much shock at the moment to really notice. After all, 16 year old girls in her culture were branded and inked on the arms and thigh so it wasn't a pain she was unfamiliar with, either.

The bike continued to speed down the hall, heading for the next intersection. For no other reason then because there was no sense of direction down here, Krystal kept straight. Up ahead, came a "T" intersection. Painted on the wall was a left and right arrow in light blue and light orange lettering, respectively.

To the left read, "Bio-Chem Laboratories, Detention A-C, Communications deck." To the right, the sign in the light orange read, "Flight deck, Armory, Hydroponics bay." Krystal decisively pulled a right turn, only slowing down slightly because she wasn't comfortable with taking turns hard with the extra weight of another passenger.

One of the fuel lights began to blink, indicating that the reserve tank was now taking over. She still had two fuel cells in the saddle bags on the back end of the bike, but with a reserve tank, she wasn't really worried about running to a stop any time soon. Fox called over the noise, telling her to head for the Armory first and so she did.

It took only a few moments to arrive. She slowed the bike to a halt and true to his word, McCloud helped her to balance the machine so that she could flip the kickstand out using her foot. She winced, remembering the problematic ankle all over again. She knew she'd have to suck it up. After all, Fox's injuries far exceeded her own. When Fox offered to hand the staff back to her, she held up her paws in protest.

Fox quickly noticed the burn markings in her palms, taking them into his own to examine her. "You've been burned pretty badly, Krystal."

"Branded, really. It'll bubble up and blister in a few hours, but it's nothing that the Cornerian Medical ship can't handle," She noted, turning to face away from him. Fox un-extended the staff and eased it into the back of her vest, through the belt. The two headed for the armory and shut the door behind themselves.

"Let's find something to dress in," Fox told her.

"Something wrong with seeing me like this?" She chided playfully, heading to a gear locker and rooting through different sized flack jackets and Kevlar pants that would fit her.

Fox simply blushed, stealing a glance over his shoulder at the vixen who leaned over the foot locker, eyeing her heart-shaped rump for a moment before answering, "No, it's not that, Krystal. I… you know, I mean," He just stammered for a moment, before tearing his eyes away and looking for something for himself to wear. "Either you have better self control than I do, or I'm not that much to look at," He finally said with a nervous chuckle.

Krystal stole a glance over her shoulder at him once he turned around to look for his own gear. She allowed those soft emerald eyes to dance over his masculine form approvingly before noting, "Women are more discrete about such things, Fox." He blushed again, not knowing how to reply and so the subject was finally dropped.

Krystal suited up then approached Fox, who was putting on a pair of pants. "Hold still, you can't wear a shirt like that, don't move," She told him, placing her fingernails on one of the glass pieces. She plucked it out, causing Fox to wince. Several more pieces were pulled free, then she ran her nails through his fur and gave him a swat on the tail. "You're good to go"

It only took a few moments before the awkward, nervous couple was suited up in military gear. Fox ripped the Venom patch off the sleeve and chest, then helped her do the same. They made their rounds about the armory, filling up their pockets with weapons before heading to the door. The walls around them shook softly, causing the two to exchange glances.

"That doesn't sound good, can you sense anything?" Fox asked her.

Krystal gave a slight shrug as the two headed into the hallway. "Well, no one is personally involved behind it, Andross and Andrew, I can hardly read them as it is, but I can tell you this, they're long gone," She replied with a subtle shake of her head.

"I think we need to find our way back to the tank," Fox mused, heading for the bike, "It's watertight. I'm not trying to drown. Dream aside, it's our best bet if that dam breaks." His words were confirmed by a computerized public announcement of an imminent dam breech. "We'd better hurry; doesn't sound like we have very long." He slipped onto the back of the bike and she slid into his lap, Fox hooked just his left arm around her, still smarting in his right shoulder.

"Fox," Krystal started. Fox knew she could sense his pain and placed his paw around her waist, tapping her tummy gently.

McCloud shook his head. "I'm fine. Let's go before we're treading water under pressure."

"Right," she replied, kicking the throwbar that started the bike. The engine ignited, growling to life. It wasn't as loud as some motorcycles, but it was definitely a confident, throaty purr. She put the bike into first gear and headed back towards the tank, back towards the zombies. The hanger exit was a certified death trap.

They could have left on foot but it was almost certain that they would be killed when the dam breaks sometime in the near future. The cerulean-furred vixen slipped into second gear, heading back towards the danger, but back towards their only chance at survival. The bike picked up speed, and they knew they were only minutes from a fight for their very lives.

* * *

**Krystal took a turn at the intersection,** easing into the brake. Fox unshouldered a rifle in his left paw, leveling it over a handlebar adjacent to the clutch lever. He waited, knowing they were getting close; he could smell the burning flesh where the bio-weapon soldiers were still close to the laboratory that had probably been consumed in flames by now.

As expected, the pair came into the hallway where the rest of the freaks were wondering about, aimlessly. Krystal charged the motorcycle's beam cannon and Fox immediately began to open fire, mowing down two or three. He cursed about having to use his left paw, but only Krystal could hear it.

She released the button trigger which caused the cycle to shutter under the blast. It ripped through four rotted freaks, vaporizing arms and parts of their torso, knocking them all down and rendering the quartet of murderous leeches into the hands of death itself. The bodies collapsed to the ground.

Krystal hit the brakes, due to the hallway's ending. Up ahead was a blockade. The burning laboratory made this hallway impassable. "Where do we go? We can't take the hallway they went through, is there a bypass, maybe?" She asked.

"I don't know," conceded McCloud. "But this is a start, we know where they're going, this is a start. Turn around, make the next two rights or lefts, we'll be heading parallel to this hallway, bypass the lab and try and find an intersection to get back into the escape hallway, it leads back towards the tank."

"You don't think they may have stolen it do you?" She asked.

"Andross is predictable," Fox chuckled, leaning his body to help Krystal make a full U-Turn. "He'll have his own method of escape. The tank's controls are locked out without a pass key; while he could hack it, because he's technologically savvy enough to handle it, he's probably in a hurry to leave, too."

"I'm willing to wager," Krystal said thoughtfully, "he's probably in a space-capable ejection pod or they had something akin to Andrew's last ship."

"I want to find it and fight it," Fox grumbled. "Let's hurry." To his words, Krystal nodded and gunned the engine. She made a left, then a second left. The hallway ran parallel to the laboratory; she made one more left and an immediate right, heading into the fiery hall with the Laboratory behind them.

Constructed out of a burn proof material, the hallway fire had died down already. Light fixtures that had collapsed from heat lay in the middle of the floor, burning, along with other miscellaneous objects. Krystal carefully navigated around them on the motorcycle, beginning to feel that much more confident about the machine. What she couldn't avoid, she blasted with the bike's nose-mounted cannon.

Only sporadic patches of flames rested in the middle of the flooring, where the incineration accelerant may have pooled in the flooring or whatnot. The bike tires were growing sticky from the heat, but it increased traction. She darted left, then right, to avoid burning robotic droids, then back to the left once more, quickly, in order to avoid a burning corpse.

Fox was sweating heavily from the heat of the area and Krystal wasn't fairing any better. "How much further do you think? Does this look familiar to you Fox?" She called back to him, shouting over the engine and roar of the flames around them.

"Yeah, believe it or not, we came in this way," Fox chuckled in reply. "We should probably hurry. These flames are far more forgiving than the floor waters!" His hint made Krystal grin slightly, easing into the accelerator.

Something behind them caused both pilot's ears to flicker. There was an explosion coming from the laboratory at the opposite end of the corridor. "GO!" Fox shouted, glancing over his left shoulder. The rifle he was holding was discarded; the vulpine team leader tucked his body in tight against Krystal's back to instinctively reduce wind drag and the heat that he was anticipating.

With his face against her back, she leaned forward as well, her torso across the bike. She dropped into second gear causing the bike to scream forward. The front wheel nearly lifted into the air, from the torque. Behind them, a roar of heat gushed forth, followed by the bright orange ball of flame. The eruption threatened to devour them; fire nipping at their proverbial heels.

There was a door up ahead but Krystal knew she couldn't slow down and wait for it to open. She charged the nose cannon of the bike, causing a particle build up to accumulate in front of the vehicle. Releasing the thumb trigger, the bike shuttered and a bright jade glob of plasmatic energy slammed into the double slide doors at the end of the hallway.

Blown off their tracks, the doors went flying forward, just as the motorcycle began to pass through the archway. The lithe blue Vixen could only attempt to command the metallic beast with body-english to keep it up when she ran over the pieces of the door. The heated, sticky tires grabbed for traction, keeping purchase on the ground to keep the motorcycle from toppling over.

Fox shouted over her shoulder, "I see the sign for the courtyard, make a left at the end of this hallway!"

"Fox, we're going too fast to turn!" She shouted. It was an unspoken, obvious truth that slowing down enough to make the turn would cause them to be engulfed by the roaring inferno nipping at their backs. It was already enough to singe the back of Fox's headfur.

"We'll make it!" Fox promised. Almost immediately, due to the speed they traversed the base, they were upon the intersection. Krystal leaned with the turn and Fox maneuvered his body, shifting his weight, along with her. They were both nearly sitting on the side of the bike, with the foot peg grinding into the asphalt-like base flooring. Fox put his right leg out, grinding his heel into the ground, to keep them from slipping into a crash-slide.

If it weren't for the heated tires, they would have completely lost traction and slid into the wall. Krystal, on the other hand, kept her legs tucked and yet her heart wasn't pounding. She felt cool and collected. Her body was running far more smooth than normal. Everything seemed in rhythm. Her heart beat firmly but didn't race. Her breathing was firm and deep but not panicked. It was like being asleep, relaxed…. And yet she never felt more alive.

Fox's strong left arm was around her waist still; his chest was flush to her back. Cobalt bangs fluttered over her eyes and those tiny white hair beads brushed against her ear. In that instance, time seemed to slow down to a crawl and she felt as though she was able to gather her thoughts in the midst of all the action.

The motorcycle cornered the hallway with only centimeters to spare between themselves and the wall. She could even recall tapping her combat boot-covered toes against the gear shift. Her eyes caught a hint of her paw releasing the clutch and the bike moved into third gear. It was all at such a relaxed pace and yet everything happened in the blink of an eye.

The clock built into the dash clicked by a digital second but there was such an incredible gap of time between the change of the 'second' digit, that one would have thought it was a number devoted to the minute-hand digit. An eternity passed. Fox's leg pushed outwards and she continued to lean her weight to the left until the bike began to raise back upwards once more. Their shift of weight was all it took, when multiplied by momentum, to bring it back upwards.

Time burst forward once more and the roar of flames behind them passed through the hall, leaving them in a cooler environment. Before she could even blink again, they were all the way down the next hallway, heading towards an incline in the floor. The front end raised and she realized quickly they were on a ramp. Her mind, which was in tune with the relaxing pace of a mere instant, only a moment prior, was now reeling to catch back up with the forward explosion of time.

Her pupils had begun to dilate again, after passing back into a darker hallway but they shrunk once more as daylight, up ahead, began to fill the area. "We've made it!" She shouted. But there was still so much ahead of them. They still only had precious minutes before the dam would burst. If Fox's dream became remotely true, they still had quite a bit ahead of themselves.

His right arm hurt too much to wrap around her waist, but his left arm was certainly anchored around her, to ensure their inseparableness in the face of a realistic possibility that they would be torn apart or worse… asunder, in the face of the Dam's growing threat. The bike came to a halt at the edge of the opening, which gave them a view of the base courtyard. Fox once attacked this area; there were scattered robot and fighter debris strewn about them.

"I see the tank!" Krystal cried, turning to the left and heading towards it…

* * *

A/N:_ I've just been crazy tired and busy with work lately. It's all calming back down. I've had to make up for my lack of work in November to some extent lol. _

_At any rate, I think it's safe to say I'll be releasing Chapter 14 for this in a week. As well as a Chap for Sim-paths, Carmelita, Reflections of Pep, Carmelita, The Curse, Nothing passed tomorrow, pretty much in that order, unless my mood gets weird :D_

_Keep it riz-eal!_

Kit

_PS: Yes, chapter 14 will be long as crap. _


	14. C14 FutureReflections

A/N: _I'm almost finished this one. I've been writing a lot in the Sly Cooper story I'm doing, as well. It's pretty fun. For those of you who are avid readers of my work, who asked me to make the genre leap, thank you. I have been introduced to three very fun games in the process. I appreciate it. For those of you who read my Sly Cooper story and never knew anything about the game prior… thank you! Fans of my writing means a great deal to me. Reflections of Peppy will be finished but I plan to take my time with it. It's a very deep, meaningful story. I've got chapters of Similar Paths Taken and The Curse planned out, as well as one for Nothing Passed Tomorrow. I've been doing a few paragraphs here and there for each. As soon as this one is finished, it will free up a great deal of time to put into those, again. :D Remember, this story is just to 'set up' the next game, on the Revolution Console. I've brought back Dr. Andross, because it seems like everytime Nintendo deviates from a major enemy (mario2, metroid2, Zelda: Links Awakening (GameBoy), etc,) they always seem to come BACK (mario3, super Metroid, Zelda: Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, etc) So, yeah… I brought back Doctor Andross. I felt there was a logical enough reason to do so, so there it is. After all, Krystal needs closure for the death of her race… Andross has to be punished for his genocide. Don't think she won't be nice to the likes of that one. I've also got to get my motivation back to write the two large manuscripts that I want to have published :D I can hope right? I want to thank you guys for sticking with me… you guys help me become a better writer. That's important to me. My gratitude and appreciation is undying! _

_-Kitsune

* * *

_

C H A P T E R _fourteen_

**The tank hatch was pried open and Fox was the first one in, due to his injury. Krystal had since pushed away thoughts of **their prior brush with nudity. As enjoyable as it was and as natural as it felt, she knew she had to concentrate on important things right now. But the fact of the matter was, this woman felt as though she could trust him on a deeper, far more complex level. She helped her mate down into the hatch and glanced back at the bike with a somber frown.

"You think Slippy will be able to build one like that?" She asked.

"It's a Space Dynamics cycle, Krystal," Fox said, sliding down into the piloting seat. She eased her legs into the hatch and slid down, pulling the metallic door shut behind herself, before shifting her weight into the gunnery seat and strapping her safety belt across her body. "We can order 50 if you want," Fox added with a chuckle, gunning the engines to life.

No sooner did the computer boot up, the sensor display chirped a proximity warning. Fox glanced down at the readout, then looked up through the cockpit window, his eyes widening in surprise. "It's Andross and Andrew! They're getting away!" Fox said, quickly putting the tank into gear and gunning the afterburner.

The tank grunted under the thrust, heading towards the dam. It was almost suicidal but Fox couldn't let his chance of settling old scores go undone. Fox opened a channel on the 'all frequency' setting, then shouted, "Fight me, you cowardly second-class dictators!" He'd never thought to combat Andross in a tank before.

"Very well!" Doctor Oikonni, the elder of the two, roared in reply. "If you can defeat me in a tank, let alone your fighter, in THIS ship, I'll be surprised, McCloud!" The strange ship in the distance began to come around. Fox narrowed his gaze and opened the channel to his team, sending out a distress beacon. This was going to be a hard-won fight.

As the small cruiser grew closer, it began to separate. The sections of the ship stretched out on metallic rods, so that something in the center was able to rise from the ship. It was a thin, almost disc-like battle fighter. It began to tilt vertically and Fox's jaw dropped, seeing the white face-like bot.

"Did you think my telekinetic amplifier couldn't be rebuilt!" Andross bellowed. "Don't be a fool! I was in the works of its repair last time we fought over Sauria! Now I'll show you what it's capable of!"

Fox charged the tank cannon beam immediately, hitting the face right in the eyes. The shot ricocheted of the front, causing Fox to balk. "That's right!" Andross chuckled over the radio, "Live by your mistakes, McCloud! I built the weak points inside the cockpit, with me. Something you can't destroy this time around!"

"What is it with you and faces?" Fox grumbled in reply over the channel, firing off a Nova Bomb so that it went right into the mouth of the machine.

To McCloud's surprise, the mouth came into the shape of an "O" then the blast of the Nova Bomb was ushered into the direction of the tank, taking the shields all the way down to 50percent status. "You see!" Andross exclaimed, triumphantly. "You won't live this time, McCloud! You may have evolved as a pilot, as a leader and as a man, but I have evolved as a scientist! My knowledge is my power! My abilities have increased ten fold and I will crush you!"

Another transmission came into the channel patch, "Not if we have anything to say about it!" cried Peppy Hare from the bridge of the new GreatFox. It sank into the atmosphere, approaching Andross' flying disc fighter. The particle cannons began to power up, causing a proton buildup to gather in front of the massive cannon muzzles.

Fox could see Falco Lombardi's arwing swiftly race out from the hanger, heading for the Tank. McCloud opened the radio communication patch, calling out to him. "Don't worry about Andross; we need to get off this base before the whole thing floods!"

Falco replied quickly, "Slippy is on his way, we're going to combine our tractor beams to try and lift you up to the GreatFox. We'll return the tank later. Let Peppy deal with Andross!"

"No," Fox said, shaking his head, "He's mine. I won't be robbed of my vengeance. I want to shoot him down and fight him personally. I have to finish it and know he won't be getting up when it's all over."

"Fox," Krystal said, shaking her head, "We've got incoming objects, look!" Just as Slippy was coming out of the new GreatFox hanger, Andross was firing a volley of missiles in the direction of the tank. Krystal quickly whirled the turret about and opened fire. The gunnery handles bucked in her paws with a satisfying confidence.

She managed to shoot down some of the marking missiles but Slippy had to join for aid, leaving Falco to use his ship as a protection shield, to ensure the missiles didn't finish off the Land Master, completely.

Without further warning, the fully charged cannons of the GreatFox roared to life, sending a massive beam into the face-shaped disc. The particle discharge caused the sensors of the Land Master and both Arwings to flutter. It slammed into Andross' fighter, throwing it clear out of the general area. The Oikonni's fighter careened into the massive cliff a few hundred feet to the right of the dam.

It took several moments for the battle disc to become dislodged from where it had been embedded in solid rock. By that time, Slippy and Falco were already hovering over the tank, using the magnetic gravity beam that Slippy installed in the last month, as a prototype for light fighters. Between the two of them, it was just enough power to lift the tank from the ground a few inches.

Andross' machine came free from the rock, slowly moving forward, as if locking onto the tank from afar. Two powerful laser blasts ripped through the air. Fox punched the hovering booster on the right side, causing the tank to roll hard to the left. The double blaster shots slammed into the ground, narrowly missing the Land Master tank.

Fox rotated the tank's main gun, aimed carefully, then fired a shot. It lanced out, heading for the Dictator's ship but instead of hitting it, it went clear passed it. Just as Andross opened a channel to laugh, the dam ruptured.

A powerful cascade of water gushed outwards, gaining purchase on Andross' ship, forcing it under with the pressure and weight of the water. The avalanche of water barreled down the hill into the valley, towards the base and towards Fox and Krystal's tank. They were only a few inches off the ground at this point, with the water screaming in rapid approach.

"Get us out of here!" Fox called to his crew. Slippy and Falco hovered side by side, using their tractor gravity simulation beam to pull the tank upwards. The water rushed forward, slamming into the tank, causing both Arwings to buck to the side, nearly clipping one another.

"Increase the power of your output, transfer it from your weapons or shielding system!" Slippy called out to Falco, who quickly punched the button combination in to pull off the energy transfer. The Arwings struggled to life the tank from beneath the water, but still kept a strong hold on its metallic hull.

Inside, Fox was white knuckled, gripping at the steering wheel. The hover boosters were now flooded and useless. The computer warned that the stress test levels were beginning to exceed their maximum testing pressure, from the heavy current of the water.

"We're going to be crushed alive," Krystal groaned, looking around the cockpit in a nervous fashion, hoping that she wasn't looking at the interior of her future casket. "We can't die, the oracle told me about my future," She murmured.

"You'll have to tell me all about that if we get out of here," Fox replied, trying to keep his wits about himself. Just then, the computer exclaimed the warning of an imminent hull breech. Before Fox could think to respond to it, a jet of water gushed in through the corner, near the hatch and another geyser poured in near his booster roll pedals.

"May the Creator have mercy on us," Fox groused, trying to use his boot to cover the spray of water coming from beneath his feet. "This dream is nearly coming true. The Land Master can handle deep water with no problems, that's why I thought it was so weird that we were taking on water in my dream."

"And in the middle of some measure of combat, at that," Krystal noted, trying to keep a calm tone in her voice. She glanced over at the shield readout, but the shields were nearly ready to fizzle out. They were at 14 percent and dropping steadily.

"I suppose you're right," Fox said, offering an awkward sort of chuckle to show his discomfort. Another seal around the gun placement went, causing the back end of the turret to begin filling with water. "And here we are, taking bits and pieces from my dream and making it a reality. I thought you were the psychic one."

"Telepathic," Krystal replied with dry humor, in vain attempt to keep her wits. "Our depth reading is going down, just stay positive, Fox. They've almost got us out of here."

"Now that the pressure seals have broken, they'll have to get us on GreatFox for sure," Fox muttered, adding, "We can't go through the atmosphere with the hull breeched in several places!"

Krystal reached off to the side, pressing the button to cause the chairs to electronically swivel in place. Activating both her chair and Fox's own chair, they were now face to face. She unbuckled her safety belt, took his muzzle into her paws and brushed her nose against his. "I just want to tell you I love you, just incase…" And before he could respond, she kissed him. A passionate kiss, full of ferverous love and complete adoration. It was one that Fox couldn't help but melt into.

Everything from that point on, happened in slow motion. Just as the top of the tank broke the surface of the water, Falco's tractor field dispersed; his gravity cannon overheated and the weight of the tank and water quickly overpowered Slippy's own tractor beam. The tank tumbled over, getting pushed by the pressure of the water's current.

"Hold on!" Fox shouted, grabbing Krystal by her clothes and pulling her into his arms. She had only just removed her seatbelt and Fox knew that being tossed around inside the tank would hurt her. He clung to her, in an attempt to keep her from being jostled around the tank's tiny cabin.

Her body weight quadrupled and Fox strained with every ounce of adrenaline his muscular frame could muster. The tank was tossed around beneath the surface, slamming against a boulder beneath the waves. The back end of the tank, where Krystal previously sat, now collapsed. The ceiling nearly touched the ground, crushing her seat.

Over and over, the tank rolled in the current, before getting deposited in the branches of a large tree. The hatch was ripped from its hinges and by this point the windshield was ripped clean out of the tank's front side. Krystal found herself sucked from the windshield opening, washed out with the current.

For Fox, once again, time slowed down as she was pulled from his arms. His right paw was wrapped around her arm just as her left paw was wrapped around his right arm. She was pulled away, their paws sliding down one another's arms, until they were holding hands for a brief moment, in a last ditch effort. Her thoughts filled his mind as she projected a plea to him. "_Don't…let… go, Fox." _

Fox gritted his teeth, holding his breath under the blast of water that filled the cockpit. His muscles ached, screaming in protest. With a lack of oxygen, he struggled all the way into the depths of unconsciousness. Their fingers were slowly pried loose and their eyes met for the briefest of moments as she was pulled from him. Her eyes were wide with fear. It was the last thing Fox saw before the darkness consumed him.

* * *

Eleven hours passed… 

**The sound of metal** creaked softly, making way to a droning noise behind it. A machine's humdrum rumble and more metallic screeching was heard, causing the vulpine pilot's ears to flicker. His right eye pried open but his arms ached too much to reach up and rub away the sea foam film that covered his face.

McCloud clinched his eyes shut tightly the opened them again, trying to lick his filmy lips. Sunlight filtered in from above and the noise of mechanical equipment continued to fill his ears. Falco and Peppy were prying the side of the tank open from outside. Somehow, they'd managed to get the tank out of the tree that was even with the water's surface, earlier.

Water was resting around his hips and ankles and the back end of the vehicle was collapsed completely. "…Kr-Krystal…?" Fox muttered before slipping back into the depths of slumber. While they worked the tank hull apart, Fox managed to slip in and out of consciousness several times, but was unable to remain awake.

"…No concussion," Someone said. He knew the voices of his team mates, but wasn't in the right mind to place the voice with an identity. His mind was swirling and confusion consumed his mental state, making his thoughts cloudy.

And yet he felt at peace. A bit cold, but not a sharp piercing sort of jack-frost biting sensation. Another voice, "Part of the control stick was ripped off, it's embedded in him, I think it pierced straight through his appendix!"

Another voice, this one he didn't recognize, "It's all right," They explained, "It's a vestigial organ; it no longer serves any real function, we've evolved beyond its use. He's lost a lot of blood. After the war against the Aparoids, our blood banks are nearly depleted. If we can't find someone with Type 'O', with no Rhesus protein. It's going to be difficult to find."

"Actually," Came the first voice. Fox's mind was starting to clear just a bit and he realized that it was his school-boy friend, Slippy Toad. Slippy continued, "Krystal is Type 'O' negative. I know because she had tests on hersince she's extra terrestrial. According to her, nobody has the Rhesus protein from her race; she's never even heard of it until she wound up in L-l-lylat."

A third voice, "But she's missing, Slip. There's a realistic possibility that she's gone, Slippy." Not exactly the voice of reason, but certainly the advice of someone who didn't have a flowery outlook on life. Falco Lombardi, who else?

"Let's at least look," The amphiboid grumbled sourly. "I recall Peppy telling me that she's under the impression that they're going to live together for a long time, from some sort of fortune teller."

"Dude!" Falco again. "Reality check? If she survived, she's lucky if she's not in the same shape as Fox. He's going to be in recovery for at least three weeks, look at his right shoulder? It's swollen to the size of my fist, and what about being impaled? And let's not forget, it's going to be impossible to find blood for him!"

"Falco! Calm down, son." A fourth voice. They were all there, the whole team. "Please, don't make this harder on yourself than it already is. I know you care about Fox. Let's just have some faith here."

"Whatever, Gramps. I need to stretch. I'm going to go for a patrol. Don't worry," Falco snapped, "It'll be productive, I'll be looking for her body." The sour remark caused both Peppy and Slippy to cringe. Fox couldn't even manage to open his eyes, he struggled to even hold on to his mortal coil.

"We're loosing him. Quick, let's get him out of there, we'll get him to the medical ship and try to stabilize him," Said the voice that Fox couldn't recognize. "I'll call to have a crash cart ready, I can tell you right now we're going to have to shock him by the time we get there, he's slipping fast, stop griping and start working faster, people."

"Fox?" A fifth voice. How many people were standing around him, he wondered? "Fox, open your eyes, Fox." The voice was so familiar and deeper than everyone else's voice he knew. Even deeper than Falco's voice. "Try it, it's a state of mind. It's willpower, not physical power. Open them, young man." The pilot did as he was told and immediately his eyes widened in shock.

"Father?" There before young Fox McCloud was James F. McCloud Senior. He wasn't wearing his signature sunshades, but instead, they were perched upon his brow. "Am I dead?" Fox found his voice came with ease, as if he didn't need to gasp for air, like he did a few minutes prior.

"This is the land of Limbo, son. Do you remember what I told you when you last saw me at the end of the Lylat War?" Asked James.

"Never give up," Fox recited, adding, "Trust your instincts."

"You're here because you didn't listen to that little piece of advice," The elder McCloud scolded gently. "I'm not disappointed, Fox. I love you; you're my son. I'll always love you. I'll always accept you and be proud of your achievements, son."

"Limbo? So we're both dead? I kept hope," Fox explained. "I kept hope when I saw you after I defeated Andross. I saw you again when I was facing the Aparoid queen but that wasn't you."

"No it wasn't," James agreed.

"Please, can you tell me exactly how you died, Dad?" Fox's eyes seemed pleading. All around them was darkness, but the void was illuminated just enough that it wasn't a consuming nothingness like he would have originally thought. "And why am I not before the Creator? Does He not exist?"

James tilted his head and said, "It's not your time, Fox. The Creator exists. He sent me here to give you a life lesson. Fighting for the better cause may be in your nature… the nature of our line, but it's not your entire life. The secret of life is the continuation of life itself. Reproduction. Offspring, continuing the species and your bloodline and ensuring the existence of your race. As far as how I died… It's time to ask Peppy for the whole grisly truth. Just know that as a leader I value the lives of my men more than my own. A real leader knows that his men are _not_ pawns. They're all potential queens, you just need to get them to the other side of the metaphorical chess board."

"You gave your life by creating a diversion so he could escape?" Fox asked.

"Something like that," James explained, leaning to kiss Fox upon the boy's forehead. "You're a made man, Fox McCloud. It's time to settle down and raise a family. Your time will come, one day. Make sure you've passed on who you are to your children, before that time comes. Time is precious. Don't worry about me, I'm not alone, here."

"Not alone?" Fox gazed at him with wide, naïve eyes. "Mom?"

James smiled softly, patting Fox on the side of his muzzle. "A man isn't complete without his wife. The scriptures state they were made from us, and it didn't exactly happen like it was written. It was a metaphor, meaning that we're not complete without our spouse. You're a lucky man, Fox. You've already met and fell in love with your mate. Don't be so nervous, you have my blessing, son. Do yourself a favor first."

"Yes sir?" Fox asked, watching his father with those young, curious eyes. He was no longer a man going on 30, but a young teenage boy, if only for the moment.

"Have Peppy take you back to our home. It's been condemned and sits in disuse. Go inside, look in the attic and you'll find a double-thick cardboard box. Inside is a wooden box with a velvet interior. It's a family heirloom. When you see what's inside of it, you'll know what to do with it. That's all I can tell you. I love you, Fox."

"I love you too, Dad," Said the boy. "My vision is getting blurry," Fox added, reaching to rub at his face.

"Defibrillation," James said in reply. "It's going to hurt in a moment."

Fox doubled over, clutching at his abdomen. He sunk to his knees, looking up at his father with wide sobbing eyes. "Why now? I wanted to see my mother before I go back, please?" He was nearly begging. James approached him and placed a paw upon Fox's brow.

"She's serving her place in Heaven, Fox. You'll see her again, in the future. In fact, if you do as I asked, you'll see her when you hunt for the heirloom. Make sure you find it as soon as possible. Go there, yourself. Don't send someone else to do it, son."

Fox groaned in pain, looking up through tear-filled eyes. "Why does it hurt?"

"You're appendix burst, Fox. They'll remove it but first, you have to open your eyes," James chuckled gently, trying to offer a reassuring yet firm tone of voice.

"Daddy? I can't see you anymore, are you there?" Fox hadn't called him daddy since around the time Vixy died.

"I'm always here, Fox. Open your eyes!"

"My eyes, sir?" Fox asked to the gloom-shrouded obscurity that surrounded him. The one he feared he would see, earlier. "I don't understand! Can you help me?"

"You've become so strong, Fox. You only need to help yourself. Now_… Open your eyes_!" James demanded.

"My eyes sir?" Fox cried out again. "How? I can't see anything!"

"Willpower, my son! Remember what I told you! Never give up, trust your instincts. It's willpower, Fox. _Open your eyes!" _James ordered. Fox clinched his eyes shut then forcibly tried to open them. Still darkness, but the pain stabbed at him again in another shocking wave of sensation that raced up his spine. James repeated, once more, "Open your eyes!" The words continued to be repeated, but James' voice melted away, replaced by another voice, chanting the same thing.

Peppy Hare. He stood to the side, clear of Fox McCloud, who was getting shocked by the duel crash cart paddles. "Open your eyes! Open your eyes, Fox!" Peppy demanded. Behind his voice was the monotone drone of a computer hum. The hum suddenly paused. The interruption was but a caesura, followed by the pulsing beep tone.

There was a breath from beyond, like the kiss of love, which breathed air into his muzzle... into his lungs. And yet the pain in his torso behind it caused him to gasp for air. His body felt weightless for a moment but crashed back down to the cart, looking up at a man holding a pair of defibrillation paddles. Fox's eyes were wide, full of fear and confusion and the pain in his gut was nearly mind-numbing.

"Krystal!" He cried after he'd sucked in enough breath with which to shout. His cry for his mate was followed by, "Father? Are you still there?"

Those words caused Peppy's heart to sink. Tears began to flow down his cheeks, soaking his fur and matting it so that it lay haphazardly over his face in total disarray. He quickly snatched Fox's paw, pulling it to his chest. "It's me, Fox. It's Peppy."

"Where's Krystal?" Fox moaned over the pain of his appendix rupture.

Peppy leaned to kiss Fox upon his forehead, much the way James had, previously, leaving Fox to wonder if it was just a dream he'd experienced. The elder hare then explained, "Fox, you need an emergency surgery, just relax. The more you stress yourself, the harder it is for your heart, because your blood pressure is so low. Just calm down, they're going to give you a local for the pain but they can't put you under because your blood pressure is too low."

"Blood transfusion?" Fox asked sourly.

This time it was the lead surgeon who replied, "Our blood banks are nearly depleted and you have a fairly rare blood type, Mister McCloud. The Aparoid attack left us in need. More people need it than those who are able to donate, or have the will or desire to donate. Just stay calm, Mister McCloud. It'll be easier for you… clear your mind, please."

"…Krystal." Fox shut his eyes, worry gnawing at his heart.

* * *

A/N: _Did Krystal survive? If she did, will she be as injured as Fox, and unable to provide the vital transfusion to save his life, or vice versa…? What happened to Andross Oikonni and his nephew? Find out soon, in the conclusion of STARFOX: REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE or STARFOX: UNCERTAIN FUTURE? Same Fox time! Same Fox Channel! _

_XD_

_-Kit_


	15. C15 FutureReflections

A/N: _I've decided, because I've had people ask, to draw out this story for ooooooone for chapter. I thought to do like Reflections Of Krystal and put some real action into the last chapter… my only other option was to have a 25 page final chapter. SO WHAT HAPPENS TO KRYSTAL! HURRY AND FIND OUT lol_

_Kit_

_Ps: more Author's Note at the bottom lol

* * *

_

C H A P T E R _fifteen_

**The softest blue-green moss had become the final resting place** for Krystal. She lay there, motionless. An ethereal beam of Luna surrounded her beautiful body and there she stayed in silence. Other than minor scraps and bruises, she seemed whole. Her tail was draped unceremoniously over her right hip as she lay there, on her left side. The forest, for but a moment, had become the epitome of silence, as if it was holding its breath.

A tiny robin fluttered down, landing upon her shoulder. She didn't stir. It trotted down to the side of her neck and rubbed its head against her muzzle, she didn't stir. Its tiny beak parted and a sad song played in melancholy mourning. She didn't stir.

Suddenly, the forest came to life, rustling leaves about and branches swaying, as if enraged. The ground trembled slightly and the receded water that stopped just inches from her feet began to quiver with the tremor. Was it an earthquake? No. The fur upon Krystal's motionless body rustled gently.

A shrill sound caused the robin to scurry away, flapping upwards to escape the thunderous scream. Merely feet from her body, the landing tracts of an Arwing touched the soft moss, causing the ground about it to sink under the weight of the fighter. Water bubbled up around the saturated ground and finally, the Arwing came to rest. Her fur came to rest once more. The tremors in the water came to rest once more and the ground stopped quivering. Silence returned.

With the most subtle of hisses, Falco Lombardi's canopy opened, discharging the artificial atmosphere that was locked within. He literally hopped from his cockpit to the ground and approached her with a sort of nervous reverence. Her body responded with deadweight when he attempted to pick her up. The avian placed his head against her chest for a moment. The faintest of heartbeats. Krystal… was alive.

Falco, the most stone cold of people, wept softly. He wasn't sure why. He couldn't explain it. Perhaps they were tears for Fox. It made no sense. He never cried when Peppy was thought to be dead, or even when Peppy appeared, after the Aparoids were destroyed. But Krystal was important to Fox. Fox was the closest thing he had to a brother as both were only children with no parents, back in their teenage years. Krystal was the closest thing he would ever have to a sister in law, or to baring him a niece or nephew.

Falco's heart cried out. In worry and yet hope; in sorrow and yet glee. He now knew only one thing. Haste.

Lombardi carried her body back to his cockpit and climbed up the side of the craft. He reached down into the chair and pulled fiercely upon the lever, causing the seat to move forward. Gently and oh-so-reverently he placed her body into the cushioned back, then sunk into his pilot seat, his knees bent uncomfortably. He knew he could manage, but he had to hurry, to bring her body back to Fox.

The flight seemed to last forever. Every parsec seemed to last a million years. What if she was beyond help or hope? He couldn't think of that now. His heart pounded and yet his stone-cold expression returned. It was his poker face; how he remained cool under pressure.

The way Slippy had previously explained, Falco rerouted power to his engines. But in order to keep them from overheating, he routed power to the engine coolant device. He felt at fault for both Fox and Krystal's near demise. If he _properly_ routed his power to the tractor cannon and split it with the temperature controlling device the way he'd learned to do so in the Academy, everyone would be sitting around, laughing nervously about the whole situation right now.

Cutting corners was on the verge of causing him two friends. Carelessness was something that could never be forgiven or falsely rewarded. It was another life's lesson. Not just about things that were precious or irreplaceable or what his conscious felt like when he'd mowed down the Street Kings (A/N: _Reflections of Krystal_), but a real lesson.

Various warnings chirped about excessive capacity and limitations on the Arwing, but he kept the afterburner cranked. With the coolant diversion, the engine wouldn't need to pause. He just burned it until the fuel light was beginning to blink. He was nearing the GreatFox now, and could see it in the distance. Almost foolishly, he'd used the booster all the way through the atmosphere of Fortuna. However, his rush paid off. Now his only plight was what to do when he returned. For now, he was in visual range of 'home'.

Fox's body had been transferred to the GreatFox so that he wouldn't have to be moved in the future, once he was put on life support. Falco made haste, he was nearly there. Above the new GreatFox, Falco could see the Cornerian Medical ship the team had called home, in the background.

* * *

"**We're having complications**," Said the surgeon. "I don't exactly understand what's in his blood stream."

"How do you mean?" Peppy asked. The elder hare had become rather clingy of Fox in the last hour. He knew he couldn't let James down by loosing the man's son.

The doctor gave a slow shake of his head. "There's some sort of toxin in his blood. I took a sample from his teeth. It looks like something he may have bit. There's so much toxic agent in the flesh remnants about his teeth. I am preparing a solution now that I'm going to use on his chops," Explained the surgeon. "It sounds weird, but I'm going to brush his teeth. It seems that whatever is in this stuff is attempting to mutate his blood stream, but there's a missing compound here. I've got a friend of mine, who's a medical scientist, looking at this, I hope you don't mind; I attached an optic-mail sample to his lab."

"What chance does Fox have of survival, if he doesn't get the blood he needs?" Peppy asked sullenly.

"I'm an optimist, so I'm going to say 40 percent survival chance. But realistically, you're looking at about a 28 percent chance of living," The doctor mused softly. "But about 3 pints would stabilize Mister McCloud completely."

Peppy's gaze narrowed. He reached to take his glasses from his nose, folding them and pushing them into his shirt pocket. "Don't add 12 percent to Fox's life to humor me. I'll be back. I need a breather." The rabbit's ears were half folded over and he looked rough. Peppy Hare left the medic bay and the door swished shut behind him.

He headed for his room and picked up a picture of James. After a moment, Peppy placed the photograph back on the shelf and looked at his old pipe collection that he'd gotten from Fox's father (A/N:_ Reflections Of Peppy: Chapter3_). "I quit tobacco years ago," He murmured to himself. "But somehow, I don't think the caffeine of Coffee will work well on my nerves." After a moment, he picked up the Plexiglas case and took out one of the pipes. It was time to pack the cherry smoke favorite. Just once more. He couldn't lose Fox. He just couldn't.

* * *

**Falco's Arwing lowered to the flight deck**. **Slippy, ironically, was there waiting**, to receive him. He quickly approached the Arwing with the portable metallic elevating platform. Stairs, he feared, wouldn't quite be efficient today.

"I hope I'm being proficient, Falco," Slippy said, raising the elevator up to the side of Falco's cockpit, just as the canopy lifted.

"You're fine, Slippy. This is _my_ entire Fault. _My_ Gravity Tractor cannon over heated, Slippy, not yours," Lombardi noted. Falco seemed awfully hard on himself. He slipped out of the cockpit seat, then reached back into his fighter, leaning behind the seating. Slippy's eyes widened with curiosity.

Falco slowly, respectfully retrieved Krystal's body from the small space. Slippy couldn't help but blink. He didn't have brows to raise or furrow. He was just shocked into silence. As soon as Falco turned about, he saw that Krystal was motionless. The frog's lower lip quivered for a moment then he reached for the controls, lowering the elevator back to the flight deck.

"Is she…?" Slippy Toad couldn't even finish the question.

"She's not dead," Falco whispered. "But I think she's in a coma. We've got to hurry, or they're both done for."

"Done for?" the frog choked, balking in shock. "You're not a doctor, let's just get her to the medical bay," Slippy said, trying to be optimistic.

"If she doesn't wake up and he doesn't get the blood he needs, they're _both_ done for," Falco snapped, narrowing his eyes through the stark scarlet feathers that surrounded his gaze. "I don't mean to … never mind, let's just hurry," Falco grunted, ending on a sigh.

"It's fine," Slippy said, shaking his head. He dashed across the floor and hit the button to open the door that led into the hallway from the flight deck. Her body was simply motionless in Falco's arms. Her head was lulled back over his right wrist. Her muzzle was parted and her tongue half-rested out the corner of her mouth. Shallow breathing was so light that she could easily be mistaken for dead.

Her nose was dry; her tongue was no longer moist. Partially opened eyes were rolled back in her head and the very sight of her body was heart wrenching. Falco took each hasty step with purpose and his posture portrayed his worry, which was very uncharacteristic of him. It was, however, fairly rare that he was forced to react to such a situation as this.

* * *

**The surgeon had been on GreatFox from the Cornerian Medical ship for hours** now. He was exhausted. His headache had subsided while the pain medication was in effect and for that small miracle, he was grateful. He stood a few feet from Fox's bed, speaking to his friend in the science department, back on Corneria.

"I appreciate you are taking the time away from the reconstruction of Corneria to work with me on this, Luke," He told his friend over the screen.

"I owe you, Charles. Besides," Replied the scientist, "Fox McCloud was responsible for the rescue of my family, several days ago (A/N: _see chapter 2_), it's the least I can do for him."

"Thanks, Lucas. So what do you have?" Asked the terrier surgeon.

"Fox McCloud has the luck of a demigod," Luke replied over the screen with a nervous chuckle. "Most people have a protean called Rhesus in their blood. Nearly everyone has it, at least. It's rare for someone _not_ to have it," explained the scientist, over the communication patch.

"I'm familiar with it. I've noticed Fox doesn't have it. It's his downfall, we can't find Type "O" Negative RH factor blood," Charles explained.

"It's his savior," Luke corrected. "Charles, the toxin in his blood needs the RH Protein to go active. It's fueled by this protein, in order to begin the process of general mutation. Mister McCloud is naturally immune because of this. But you must purge him of the toxin, as he is currently a carrier. And yes, it's obvious he needs blood desperately."

"But we need at least 2 or 3 pints to just make him stable. I don't know where we could possibly find…" Charles paused, hearing the doors behind him swish open. Within the doorway, Falco Lombardi stood wistfully, holding the body of Krystal. The terrier's eyes blinked rapidly.

"She's alive, Doc," Falco explained. "She's got the right blood type, but she won't wake up."

* * *

_Twenty-four hours pass_…

**The lighting was dim**. Fox sat up, wincing at the feeling of the stitches in his abdomen; his right shoulder hurt. He looked around the area, but it was enshrouded in gloom. He cleared his throat then called out, "Rob? Brighten the room by 45 percent," He ordered. The ship was routed through Rob/Nus 64+ and after just a moment, the square panels in the walls and ceiling began to incandesce just slightly. Besides him was another bed, where Krystal lay in silence.

She was rigged up to a respirator and had a bandage on her arm, from where blood was taken. Fox owed his life to her. He owed her his life and yet he couldn't repay the favor this time. Worry consumed him. He reached his right paw out towards her then winced again; this time at the sharp pain from where his shoulder had been beat up.

It got worse, thinking back on the whole thing. Back in the tank, his instincts to use his right paw to cling to her as the water pulled her from his grasp meant two things. One, that his shoulder was now incredibly in need of multiple surgeries and worse yet, that he felt he could have saved her if he wasn't so foolish as to reach for her with the wrong paw. It was the one time he felt his instincts may have failed him.

Kneeling besides her bed, Fox lay his head upon her stomach and prayed softly. A few moments passed and he was shaken from his reverie by a paw upon his shoulder. Peppy Hare. Fox glanced up; a sullen look in his eyes, then said, "Do we know an actual reason for her not waking up?"

"Fox," Peppy sighed softly, "In all of our system's medical technology, we cannot determine the reason why she's fallen into a coma. I wish I could have better news."

Fox placed his muzzle back upon Krystal's midriff, just above the belt loops of her shorts. His eyes fluttered shut once more. Silence returned. Her slow and steady breathing was almost like a metronome. It was driving him crazy. She was nothing more than a breathing body; it pained him to no end.

"May I make a suggestion?" The voice nearly startled Fox to death. It was a voice he didn't know and the vulpine pilot struggled not to lash out at it. Finally he glanced up at Charles, the Surgeon, and a nod was offered. The terrier cleared his throat then said, "Without the Rhesus Protein, the Toxin that we found in your blood has restoration abilities. It's why your shoulder wasn't worse off than it was. Your report claims you held onto her for what seemed like several minutes with your right paw. That should have been impossible."

"Yeah," Fox shrugged with just his left shoulder; his right one was still extremely sensitive. "I understand I'll need surgery … several surgeries."

"Yes. Two on your shoulder and one to remove the toxin in your blood. Luke and I have decided to take a look at the toxic properties and see if they can improve Krystal's situation. Then we can cleanse her in the same manner we're going to clean your blood."

"How do you plan to combat this toxin in my blood; is there an antidote?" Fox asked.

"No, it's more of a virus. It affects every cell in your body," Charles explained.

Fox cringed. A _virus_? He cleared his throat, licking his dry lips then asked, "How do you plan to clear this from my blood? A virus sounds serious."

"It _is_ serious, Fox," Charles told the pilot. "I'll have to sit down with Lucas and come up with a way to go about this. I need to talk to Beltino about some things too. Just relax. She's stable at the moment. You're alive. I want you to come back in an hour and we'll review what your options are. We'll go from there, Mister McCloud."

Fox simply gawked. He was being asked to leave. He glanced back at Krystal longingly. Finally he stood up, nodded respectfully and let Peppy lead him from the room. The two headed for the bridge, giving Fox somewhat of a tour of the new ship. "I'm… I'm scared, Peppy. I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty damn worried."

Peppy frowned thoughtfully as the two walked through the main hallway. "Well, Fox," Said the elder hare. "Let's just let those two worry about it. We'll see what our options are, sound good?"

Fox shook his head and snapped, "No! It sounds like being helpless!"

* * *

**An hour passed. Fox returned to the laboratory and approached the terrier** who was standing at a monitor, talking to Lucas, on the screen. Fox glanced from the televised picture of a scientist, to the surgeon. "Well?"

"It gets pretty complicated," Charles said softly. "There's good news and bad news. So here it is," He explained. The canine motioned to a nearby lab chair, sitting down into one, himself. Fox did as he was gestured to do then Charles continued with the synopsis of the situation. "There's some sort of trigger. After reviewing your report, we've learned that Andross was revived using the toxin. But it didn't actually regenerate your shoulder. So why didn't it work for you?

"We've figured out what we need to prompt the regeneration to begin; the Rhesus protein is the trigger for the average man. Andross' old military record shows he was type B negative. We need whatever specialist protein that's not local. It appears the domestic protein doesn't wash out of the blood once it's mutated. The foreign one is flushed out and so its slight mutating process helps your body through the restoration process without going through the full mutation process. But the only source of this secondary protein is found in a plant on Fortuna. It could be found in stock in the base you guys wiped out… that's the bad news."

Fox blinked. "What's… the good news?"

"The flood waters receded from the base. Now all we have to do is convince the Cornerian Government to spare a few paws away from reconstruction, to search the base," Charles noted. "I'll have Lucas put in a petition and we'll get the ball rolling, but it'll be a few days, if not longer, before we have the necessary ingredients. Then we can take care of this."

"What about what I heard as far as the side effects of this virus?" McCloud asked in a near-shaky voice.

"Most of what we know, from your report, is based on side effects on those that had the Rhesus protein in their blood," Lucas explained, from where he was on the screen. "This is far slower. You might have a few light hallucinations and your inhibitions might loosen up but nothing more than as if you've had a beer or two, if you're as lightweight as Mister Hare suggests."

"Yeah," Fox said, shrugging his left shoulder, "I'm good for a beer or two, but after three or four, if I haven't eaten, I get a little weird. But if I eat, I'm usually all right."

"Right, well," Lucas paused as if to wait for Charles to get back to the topic. Charles approached Fox, patting his chest. "We need the virus poison in your blood to save Krystal. It's not that she's in complete danger, but in the last hour, her white cell count dropped. We don't know why but we DO know that this virus can save her."

"You said you were going to have answers as to how you planned to cleanse me of this stuff?" Fox inquired, folding his arms across his chest, being careful to favor his right arm.

"We're going to run your blood into a glass tube," Charles said calmly, adding, "Then we're going to heat it, run UV rays through it, and then cool it. Finally, it runs through the tube, back into your body. You'll have to have your blood cycled this way for eight solid hours while we stimulate your heart with an herbal concoction that will make your heart pound faster, to rush the blood through your body."

"Eight hours?" Fox sort of gawked at Charles for a moment, then nodded his head slowly. "How hot?"

This time, Lucas replied, from where he was on the monitor. "Your red blood cells should be able to handle temperatures around 109 degrees. Most virus cells expire beyond 106 degrees. We're going to run your blood at 110 degrees, then cool it almost immediately, while running UV rays through the glass tube where your blood will be filtered."

"All right, where do I find this strange plant supply on the base? And do you think the water killed the freaks down there?" Fox asked.

"No!" Shouted Lucas and Charles both, simultaneously. Charles continued with an explanation. "You're on bed rest. Those hallucinations are no joke. You need to stay here, where we can monitor your progress. It should only be a few days."

Fox cut his eyes from the monitor back to the surgeon. "What about my shoulder?"

"We're going to replace it," Charles replied in a polite tone. "It'll be better than your current one. It'll be to your advantage. As soon as I can clear your blood of the virus, we can do the surgery. Else, it's putting the surgeons at risk; I know _I Myself_? I _do_ have the Rhesus Protein in my blood."

"Great," Fox mumbled, casting his gaze at Krystal for a moment before walking out of the Laboratory, looking fairly dejected. Once the doors shut behind him, Charles looked back to Lucas and shrugged.

"He seemed to take it fairly well, Luke." The terrier ended on a sigh.

* * *

**Falco Lombardi pushed the slow-sliding door the rest of the way open** and stepped into Fox's room. It was dark, almost gloomy. "Yo! Fox!" He called out. "I've decided I'm going to take Slippy and go to the freakin' base on Fortuna. We don't gotta wait. Just gimmie permission and I'm outta here. Fox?"

Falco walked through the living room and pushed the door ajar, stepping into the bedroom. "Wake up, dude. Don't sit there and sleep around like a depressed, moping weenie. I know you better than that," Falco scolded. "You've _NEVER_ been one to sit around and _mope_; get your tail up." He brushed his feathery fingers across the wall, searching for the light.

The square panels in the walls illuminated with their growing incandescence until he could see. The Avian glanced back to the empty bed and frowned. "Dammit," groused Lombardi. "I should have seen that coming from 5th Avenue." He paused then added, "Peppy's going to be pissed."

* * *

A/N: _At the end of Page six, where fox is like, "So what's the good news?" I was so tempted to have the surgeon say, "I just saved a boat load of money on car insurance!" :;Shot;:_

_Well, I've done it… I decided to drag things out and put some more action in things…. You can't just end on such a somber mood…You need passion and power and attitude._

_You need things to blow up before the credits scroll; that's just how I roll. _

_When I finally reach the end of this, you'll curse me cause you'll really need to piss. Having sat there unable to tear away; this stupid rhyme is really gay. _

_I'd best shut up and go and write… Before yaw'll kick my ass and smite………me_

_Toodles, yaw'll. _

_I was in the spirit of giving! (another chapter)_

_Tell me you love me:) hehe_


	16. C16 FutureReflections

A/N: _in chapter 12, Fox and Krystal find a GRENADE in the lab. It's an old cylinder grenade, about 12 inches long. I recite that it was left there in the past, which I write about in chapter 9 of Reflections of Peppy. I've been working on changing Reflections of Peppy a lot and now it's going to happen in Chapter 3. Sorry:D So you'll find out more about him ditching Cigars for Pipes AND how a grenade was left in the Fortuna Base years before the current day, before Venom took it over in more recent times. You'll see how it ties into this one a little more in that next chapter, coincidentally you'll also find out about some radioactive plants in Peppy Chapter3. _

_I had another person ask me to do a "Reflections Of Fox". The original point of the Reflections series was to reflect on other characters, who get the spotlight for a change. As much as it's been successful in both … in all THREE Reflections stories thus far, I've decided that if the people want Fox McCloud, I'll give them Fox McCloud in this chapter. But not only that, since it's not TECHNICALLY A story with Krystal's name in the title, I guess it's okay to throw a few other characters into the spot light for the last chapter. Fox, sure, but how about another, far more unlikely hero to join in?_

_Normally Leukemia is found with a flair of white cells. The count sky rockets. With my half-sister, Jessica, she battled for two years in John Hopkins with this problem, before it suddenly dropped and her white cell count became a big-fat-zero. I didn't mean to suggest that Leukemia should have been mentioned when explaining that Krystal's white cell count was dropping. I was just writing from memory of an experience over my sister, years ago. She was 12 when she went in and about 14 when she came out. She's now on the verge of 30 and happily married. Yay. _

_By the way, one last thing: This is a VERY LONG CHAPTER. It's actually the longest chapter to date, for ANY of my stories, because I'm sure everyone, as much as they love suspense, is ready to see how it ends. And so… I give you… THE FINAL CHAPTER! Muwahahaha. Enjoy! _

_

* * *

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C H A P T E R _sixteen (Finale)_

**The Arwing's nose lifted and the body began to descend** on the mud-covered concrete surface at the edge of the abandoned base. It quickly became obvious that standing water was now resting throughout the base. It had become an overnight breeding ground for bugs and such, only serving to frustrate Fox.

"You came here without your team," He told himself aloud. "You're no leader without a team. If you can't trust in them, who can you trust in, Fox?" It wasn't an argument he could win right now. "You're in a hurry to get this stuff and get out, without risking anyone else getting this damn virus. It might kill the other members, you just got lucky." The canopy lifted with a soft hiss, it was time to get this stuff and get out of here. He knew his team was going to be pissed with their team leader being down here, injured.

That was just too bad. He had a job to do, starting with saving one of his team members. The stubborn pilot shut the canopy behind himself, sliding down the side of the hull, landing on his feet. He placed his left paw between his knees, dropping to a crouching position, keeping his favored right arm slightly elevated during the drop to stave off the pain. Fox's eyes cut furtively from left, panning to the right. This place was a disaster area, thanks to the dam breaking.

The sweltering jungle heat returned and the humidity was intense. It felt like he was breathing through water and as soon as he stood up, his gaze lowered to the ground, watching the ground beneath his feet beginning to ripple as if it were alive. Hallucinations; he was warned about them but he had a job to do. The job came before his personal health and that was the bottom line.

Looking like a mess of broken twigs and stray, winding weeds beneath his feet, Fox glared at them, standing very slowly, until his back was straight. To him, he saw the ground nearly crawling. His hallucination was running wild, making it look as though he were walking atop of a ground covered with snakes. The slithering serpents crawled upon their bellies, hissing softly.

"They're not even there," Fox snapped, reaching down and snatching a stick from the ground and snapping it in half with a U-shaped bowing of his wrists, willing the wooden object to break. Snakes don't bend or break; they could be tied in a knot if it came to that. He was only trying to prove to himself that they weren't really there.

It wasn't to say that the water may or may not have brought snakes from the jungle right into the base. But one thing was for sure: there was no way the ground was covered with them as far as the eye could see. No, his eyes and mind were playing tricks on him. He just had to be stronger than that.

A stairwell led down to one of the personnel entrances, not far from the double doors that were damaged, rendered useless. Fox descended the narrow concrete steps, blinking in surprise when he saw what was blocking the smaller door. "You've got to be kidding me," He muttered under his breath. The blue-metallic battle-bike that Krystal had used in the past two days was pressed up against the doorway in ankle-deep standing water on the last step.

Fox had to use his left paw to shove it down from the door and clear away a vertical branch, still favoring his right arm. The bike flopped over onto the stairs with a loud thud. A small light was flashing on the battery casing, which drew his attention away from the creepy crawling snakes that were hissing in his ear, all about the area. He knew they weren't real and yet he could hear and see them everywhere.

"This bike is incredible," Fox chuckled softly. "Anything that still has power in its battery cell after being hit by a tsunami from the local dam… is a good bike." He put his right foot up on the door frame and took the handle in his left paw and arched his back so hard that his left foot was suspended above the ground. Using his body, he pulled until the door gave way with a loud squeaking noise.

There were multiple doors at the bottom of multiple concrete stairwells just like this one, all throughout the area. This one just seemed to be the least muddy of the surrounding stairwells. The double doors that lead into the hangers, throughout the base were all damaged and without power, leaving this as Fox's only easy way in.

The fire was out. He had expected smoke to billow out when the door opened but somehow, the water found its way in because the floor was at least ankle deep in standing water. He stepped into the base, sloshing through the warm water, that was easily the same temperature as bathwater. Every so often, the vulpine would stop and listened, to see if he heard any distant sloshing or breathing sounds then he continued on, satisfied that he was still alone at this point.

In the dim lighting of the yellow emergency lights, which were still running, McCloud could see a body floating in the middle of the hallway in which he stood. He went around it, trying to avoid the puffy, swollen corpse of a Venomian Lizard. As the mercenary walked through the ankle-deep corridor, the body's mouth seemed to drop open. Fox kept his gaze averted, telling himself that it was just another hallucination.

Fox's ears flinched, hearing a voice in the room that wasn't his own. "The virus is a mutating entity; the scientist and surgeon told you that much. RH factor? We'll find a way to go around that," Said the dead, floating body in a raspy voice. Fox clinched his left paw into a fist, ignoring the audible mirage. It continued in a chiding tone, "If your instincts let you down and nearly cost you an arm and a mate, then why trust them now?"

"Because my father trusted them and Peppy lives by that as well," Fox answered; his face growing sour once he realized that he was answering the dead. A moue of disgust crept over his muzzle in reaction to his own conduct in the face of mental adversity.

"And your father is dead. Peppy _instinctively_ made an _attempt_ to get himself killed twice! To save Pepper and to attack the Aparoids. What good are your instincts, if they brought you here to die," Replied the throaty, thin voice. Fox offered no reply but it didn't back down from his silence. "The fire then the flood, McCloud? These plants probably didn't survive; your attempts of resistance to logic is foolish."

"Hush," Fox mumbled, approaching the first electronic door panel he came to. He pulled the metal access panel off the wall and began to pump the manual release lever, causing the doors to slowly separate from one another. "You're not even real."

"I'm as real as you are; I'm a metaphor created by your mind," Said the floating corpse. "You're insane and having wild mental hallucinations, Fox McCloud. I am your logic and reason, making an attempt to show itself as a physical element in your mind, since you've blocked out all reasonable and rational thought in spite of this slow-acting disease inside of your blood."

McCloud narrowed his eyes, ready to prove that love, itself, is insane. "Krystal is slowly becoming unstable. Her white-cell count exploded forward, as if she had an infection then it dropped dramatically, fluctuating as if she had Leukemia but the marrow isn't affected. An attempt is all I can offer in order to save her life. You're wasting your time and mine," Fox snapped, glancing over his shoulder for a moment, glaring at the motionless, floating corpse, before turning his gaze back to the access panel. Fox pumped the release lever which caused the door to open an inch or two with each movement of his left paw against the handle in the wall panel.

The vision of conversation with the dead continued. "Again, I am logic and reason, taking on the form of the dead to better show you that part of your mind, while blocked by this toxin in your blood, is still functioning in an attempt to save your life. A will to live is locked inside you, wanting you to get away from this suicide mission so that you're not wasting _our_ time." It was dreadfully convincing, which caused Fox to balk for a moment. Finally, the pilot found his inner resolve.

"Nice trick but I've gotta go," Fox told the dead body before moving back to the slightly parted doors. He put one foot on one door and his left shoulder up against the other, then strained his body to push them apart enough that he'd be able to get back through. Water was the same depth in this room, which sloshed with every step that he took.

"I need a john-boat to get through this," Fox groused, reaching his left paw to his right bicep and favoring his arm, which hurt dreadfully. Even in the dimly illuminated auxiliary lighting, he could see that blood was running down the walls, beginning to tint the water in a crimson coloration. He did his best to ignore it. The scarlet fluid seemed to move slowly; thick like toxic sludge. It didn't have the same properties as real blood, which _would_ have dripped down the bulkhead like water.

"It's not real, so it doesn't rightly matter," Fox muttered to himself. A water snake glided across the glistening surface, passing through an intersection, continuing in a direction heading away from Fox. "Okay, maybe _he's_ actually real, but I have to wonder," Fox said, shaking his head. "If I'm not careful, I'm liable to start talking to myself, out loud."

He continued to slosh across the intersection, continuing straight, down the hallway. "What if that snake was some sort of strange metaphorical sign that was trying to lead me to the plants?" Fox shook his head slowly. He knew he wasn't psychic; no snake was trying to lead him _any_where.

The next door was opened the way he opened the last one, but as soon as the release lever got the doors to open even an inch, water began pouring in at knee height. The pressure created a light current in the room. Fox continued to pump the lever in his left paw, until the doors were wide enough apart that he could step through, against the new rush of knee-deep water.

"Okay," He told himself. "If these doors are water tight, that tells me the last two hallways connect by means other than doorways. This means I'm entering a new section of the base that doesn't quite have the same …I dunno, it's not connected," He continued to argue with himself quietly, yet in a nearly normal speaking voice.

He _was_ the only one here, _any_way, right? "The water came in through the ventilation in the roof, when the dam initially broke, that's how the water got in, but now it's sectioned off in parts that won't drain," He told himself. Using logic and reasoning kept him in a state of feeling sane.

"Okay, now to find a directory or the auxiliary control booth," He told himself, remembering that the original control section was turned into a communications center that went up in the fire, due to its proximity to the laboratory. So far, no sign of the undead research-reject squad.

Fox reached his left paw down to where he had his trusty Blaster on a thigh holster but above that was the real firepower; he came well prepared for a freak encounter. On his hip, Fox had a high power incendiary pistol known as The Magnum XL Professional. Falco referred to it as the Mag-Pro but either way, it was respected and being the newest edition to the Space Dynamic weapon roster, it was released as a solution to being over run by Aparoids less than a month ago.

An expensive weapon, its only draw back was draining a full power cell after 6 powerful shots. He had a supply pouch attached to a strap that was crossing his chest, over his left shoulder, secured to his right hip. He was loaded to the teeth. He wasn't as good with his left paw as he was with his right, but ambidextrously trained, Fox knew he could handle a mission shooting with just his left paw.

In fact, he was actually close in accuracy percentage. He scored a 100Percent firing ratio with his right paw and a 94Percent accuracy rating with his left. His stomach was aching and his legs were hurting. Glancing down, he blinked in surprise. His lower lip trembled and he tried not to give in to the hallucination his mind was showing him.

A horrendous sight, his intestines were slithering out of his gut. The entrails, easily 7 to 8 meters in length, were uncoiling like a snake, reaching down to the water at his knees. "STOP! It's not real," He told himself, reaching for a small metal cylinder in his upper vest pocket. Snatching the metal object, he pushed one flattened end against his neck and waited a moment. A hiss was heard and his body began to calm.

His head lowered once more and he noted there was still something on his shirt, just above his belt. A floating piece of water marsh had become a hitch hiker, from walking through the water-filled hallway. He wasn't sure if this weird snake theme was something in his head or if it was just a coincidence because this weed was an elongated object, somewhat like a snake or even an intestine that could have been pulled straight.

Fox put the medicinal injector back into his vest pocket, strapped the pocket shut then reached to pull the thick weed away from his shirt. It came to life in his hand, hissing at him, snapping its fangs at him like a snake would. He held it near the top, as if handling a snake, so that it couldn't reach down and take out his wrist. He knew it wasn't real but the toxin had been in his blood for more than 24 hours now and it was having a profound effect.

The weed was thrown across the hallway, hitting the wall and half sticking to the metal bulkhead. Slowly, gravity defeated it, causing it to slink down the wall, where it came to float in the water. His body felt overly tired, his head ached and even the dim yellow lighting felt as though it was too bright. He felt thirsty.

Lifting his left wrist, he used his nose to nudge the button on the computerized gauntlet, contacting Slippy. "I'm sure you guys have figured out what I'm up to, by now; I could use some help. I'm suddenly feeling hung over, what can I do about it?" He asked.

Slippy's head was projected above the gauntlet, floating a few inches from his wrist. Fox blinked slightly, trying to cause the grizzly display beneath his un-rendered throat to disappear. Slippy actually _looked_ like a decapitated head, floating in mid air.

"I've got your vitals here on a screen, Fox," Slippy said, shaking his head dejectedly. "You're _very_ dehydrated. That's why you've got a headache and your body hurts. Apparently this toxin has mutated in an attempt to fight you, since you don't have the RH Protean. I suggest finding a drinkable water supply and consume as much as you can as often as you can, Fox. Get a canteen if you can find one."

"Will do. Is Peppy pissed off?" Fox asked, changing the subject.

"Just concentrate on your mission; you're already there so finish what you've started," Slippy squeaked out, offering a frumpy sort of frown.

"Nice," Fox chuckled. "These haluchina- hahluth- blah, dry tongue; these _hallucina_tions are the real deal, man. It's freaky, Slippy. Anyhow, thanks for the advice, I'm trying to hurry, so I won't be long."

"He's on the bridge right now," Slippy mused, looking away as if glancing over his unseen shoulders before glancing back at Fox. "With his old Cherry-Smoke pipe. It's been since I was a teenager, Fox."

"Yeah," McCloud agreed in a thoughtful tone. "He's just worried. Anyhow, I've got to keep my eyes and ears forward, catch you on the Flip, Slip." With that, McCloud brought the gauntlet to his nose, touching the disconnection button against his snout and ending the communication.

His right paw still hurt too much to lift to even perform a simple task like firing a gun or pressing a button on his wrist communicator. Fox approached another set of double doors and pulled the metal access panel cover away, tossing it to the floor. With a splash, it sank beneath the water and disappeared.

His left paw found the manual lever, beginning to prime the handle, repeatedly pumping it up and down. Slowly, the double doors began to open, inch by arduous inch. Water began to rush from the room he was in, into the room he was trying to open, which told him that the water was at a lower depth in the section he was heading into.

Once the doors were wide enough, he headed through them, following the light flow of water. There was some sort of natural draining in this section, leading him to believe that the maintenance hatches ran through this part of the base and were most likely flooded, because the water level never rose, even as so much water poured in from the hallway in which he came.

The water level was an even inch in depth across the floor, allowing him to see the floor panels in the dim amber illumination. Foot splashes followed him down the corridor. He stopped in the middle of the hall and held his breath. More foot splashes, which sounded a bit different than his footfalls. It sounded like someone was dragging their feet, which caused the water to be kicked in a splashing sound unlike his puddle-stomping splash noise.

Rounding the corner, a biological weapon soldier with slouched shoulders and a hunched stance began a slow approach. He had sustained a fair amount of water rot over the last 24 hours of being in warm water. It was a gross sight to behold. Fox drew his regular blaster up into his left paw and fired a shot off.

Instead of passing through the beast and hitting the wall like he thought would happen, the shot slammed into the zombie's face, causing the zombie to stumble slightly from the impact. McCloud re-holstered the blaster pistol and pulled out The Magnum blaster, taking aim and grinning. It was the first time to use this new weapon in the field and now that he knew this _thing_ was real, he was ready to show it who was the boss in these parts.

One hard shot, which caused his left paw to buck under recoil, slammed into the engineered freak, tearing through its forehead and ripping the top of the skull into pieces. Everything above the mutated lizard's jaw and throat were gone, now. The impact of the shot threw the whole body back so hard that it landed on its ass.

The body slumped forward, so that its shoulders hit its knees and the headless figure convulsed for a moment before growing still. Fox flipped the safety on, gave the gun a loose twirl on his finger, then shoved it back into the hip-holster, ala a western movie. "Not bad," He remarked joyfully.

The pilot approached the body, kneeling besides it. He skimmed his left palm over the suit pockets, searching for gear. A water-logged wallet with ID and Venom credits, a useless set of dog tags from two other fallen soldiers, a pill bottle with Venom lettering on it. Fox sounded out the wording as best he could remember from having Venom Language 201, back in the academy.

After a moment, he deduced that the pills were antibiotics. The interior of the translucent orange bottle seemed cloudy with muddy water and white chalky lumps of half-dissolved pills floating around inside of it. He tossed the bottle over his shoulder, which skipped off the inch of water that filled the room.

"All right, you're worthless," Fox chuckled softly, standing back up and continuing onwards. "Where are your buddies, pal?" He asked quietly, wondering if there were more corpse soldiers further down the hall. So far, the area was rather empty.

Another doorway: this time, a single door with a metal box and a keypad on the wall as its handle, presented itself to Fox. McCloud used the butt of his regular blaster to knock the metal mount away from the keypad, exposing the sodden green electronic board beneath. A single computer chip was soldered into the plastic green board, next to what resembled a transistor or capacitor… or resister, or _whatever_ it was supposed to be. Fox didn't really know the difference well enough to distinguish between the three.

Next, he used the butt of his blaster to knock the keypad out of its mount, so that it dropped down the wall, hanging from a set of wires. There was excessive water damage to the internal components; it didn't take an engineer to realize that much. Fox shook his head in disgust, flipping the blaster around then trying to jam the muzzle through the green electronics board, in an attempt to punch a hole through it.

Once he cleared the hole out, yanking out as much electronic garbage as he could, he reached a paw in, groping around for some sort of manual release lever if one existed. There was something greasy touching his paw. The pilot's eyes narrowed and his upper lip curled into a half snarl, reaching around in the gelatinous mess, telling himself it was just water mixed with insulation, that made it feel like a chalky paste.

The problem was, it wasn't all that much of a chalky paste. It was a slimy sort of goo, smoother than some machine lubrication. It felt more like an organic sort of gook. His jaw tightened and he continued to grope through the sludge, searching for a handle. "This is crap," He grumbled under his breath. Nothing.

He pulled his paw back out, which was completely dry and clean, examining it. His eyes lifted, returning to the hole in the wall where the keypad panel used to sit. Blood began run down the wall beneath it, causing Fox to frown. He could see and feel it, but it wasn't really there because it never saturated the fur of his paw. Or was it?

"Yuck," Fox chuckled, glad for the fact that he wouldn't have to wipe his paw off. He reached a finger out, wiping away a trickle of the blood that ran down the wall beneath the panel hole in the wall. It left a finger smear on the wall but when he lifted his finger to look at it, it was clean and dry. "Weird," He added, backing away from the wall then shooting a few blaster shots into the hole.

Smoke began to emanate from behind where the metal plates had been placed over the wall, on the other side of the door. Fox blinked, approaching the other side of that doorway, sniffing at the smoke that seemed to come out of the wall itself. He could smell it. The smell of roasted electronics was real enough to let him base a hunch.

Fox fired his blaster into the metal square. Many other metal squares just like it lined the wall from one end of the hallway to the other. The one he'd shot had bent, causing the edges to curl upwards just slightly. He holstered the low-powered weapon and used his left paw to grip the metal tile. He put his left knee up against the wall, pulling with all his weight.

The panel bent more, coming slightly further from the wall. Finally, Fox pulled his blaster back out, wedged it into the larger of the bent-tile corner gaps, then rammed it with his left shoulder, prying the tile away from the wall. It fell into the shallow water with a splash, mixed with a muffled clang. Within, there was a latch release handle.

Fox grinned triumphantly, pulling it all the way down. The door, now unlocked from its pressure seal, was thrown open hard by the weight of the water behind it. A surge of liquid gushed in, as if there was a wall of deep water on the other side. It continued to pour in, but the water on the floor of the current hallway never got deeper.

McCloud just stood there, in awe of how much water was flowing from this door. "Are you freakin' serious?" He suddenly shouted at the wall of water that flooded through the door. "There's got to be an exceptionally good drainage shaft in this room," Fox noted to himself about the area where he was, presently.

After another moment, he just shook his head and sighed softly. Now he felt stupid. He stuck his left paw out, reaching into the heavy flow of the water. It was cold and wet, but the pressure that should have been behind that water didn't exist. Fox pulled his paw free of the water and gazed at his dry palm under the auxiliary lighting.

"I'm going to wake up from all of this, sitting on Cape Claw with Krystal, having just spent the last two hours skinny dipping," He told himself, sucking in his breath to ready himself for walking into this water. It was mind over matter. If he told himself it wasn't there, hopefully he wouldn't choke on imaginary water. He had to control his mind, not let his mind control him.

He finally just stepped right into the water. It was cold against his body and felt as wet as if he'd just stepped under a waterfall that didn't crush him with the weight of a river. Passing through the hallucination, he found himself just where he wanted to be. The beach of Cape Claw. "Nice," Fox said with a grin. He scooped up a palm-full of beach sand, letting it filter back through his fingertips, collecting by his feet.

He walked through the beach area, leaving footprints in the sand. "That's weird," He said under his breath. He kicked his foot into the sand, spraying the dirt forward without the splashing sound that shallow water would have made. He leaned forward and scooped up another pawful of sand. It was there, in his paw. "This can't be real," Fox muttered slightly louder than his plain speaking voice. "There's no way this really could be here. It shouldn't look just like Cape Claw in here, what in the hell is going on?"

Fox received no answers. As he walked along the beach, he noted that in some places, there were odd looking patches of cabbage. Curiosity got the better of him and he approached one of them, leaning down to examine it. Fox knew vegetation like this didn't grow in beach sand.

He tugged on the plant and it lifted out of the sand, right into his lap. It felt heavy and cool to the touch. It was smoother than it looked and didn't hold the texture of vegetation. Fox McCloud clinched his eyes shut tightly, took a few deep breaths, then opened them again, slowly.

He was holding a robotic attack droid and he wasn't in Cape Claw, he was in the hallway where Krystal had eluded one of the attack droids by taking the corner tightly at excessive speed. There was a huge dent in a nearby wall, where the bot had connected with the bulkhead, taking the corner too wide. A matching dent was in the flying sentry's metallic casing.

The pilot stood up, throwing the bot to the floor, which caused a harsh clanging noise. He walked to the mouth of the hallway, which was a large empty room, like a hollow warehouse. Above him, there was a large opening, which looked as though it lead into another hallway.

Most likely, things brought in from another wing of the base were brought from that section of the hallway by elevator or escalating ramp and dumped off in this room. Krystal had actually made a three and a half story jump using the motorcycle, when hunting for Fox's detention cell, a day or two ago. Fox couldn't remember how long it had been, he just knew it was a little under 48 hours.

Tire marks were in the center of the room, from where she'd landed with the motorcycle after the massive jump. She was lucky to have survived. Another set of bike tracks were smeared at the opening of the first floor hallway, where she'd made a tight turn. It was obvious that she'd cornered hard here, because the foot peg had grinded a deep groove into the concrete flooring.

"I'm willing to wager Krystal was in this room before she found me," McCloud said aloud; again, just slightly louder than his normal speaking voice. He looked around the large, half empty warehouse, which only had a few crates up against the far walls, away from the soft yellow glow of the auxiliary powered lights.

"How this place had come to look like Cape Claw a moment ago is beyond me," Fox said, shaking his head slowly. He started walking across the room, away from the main hallway he'd just come from. After exploring the back wall that was cast into the shadows, he finally found another doorway, which was also wide open. The hallway beyond it was completely dark.

Fox brought his wrist gauntlet to his snout again, nosing the search light that was built into this latest model, inspired by so many dark regions on the first visit to Sauria. The vulpine ventured into the hallway, which was long but empty. There was a door at the end, which was ajar.

Red and yellow warning ribbon looked to have been used to previously seal this door shut. Mold covered both colors of the ribbon, which was written in Cornerian. "Army ordinance 402: Section 3A, area closed due to biohazard" but the tape had been cut. Half of the message was displayed on the tape over the door, which was open. The other half of the message was displayed on the tape that was fastened to the wall, adjacent to the door.

Fox paused, looking the door over sighing softly. Something about this room just didn't sit right with him. Finally, he nudged the door the rest of the way open with his toe, stepping into the dark room. There was a dirt floor that started where the tiles left off just in front of the doorway. Some of the tiles were crumbled and looked to have eroded over time. From there, the dirt floor went all the way to the back wall.

"What is this?" Fox growled, "Another hallucination?" He demanded to nobody in particular. There were fern-like plants that had grown from the floor, up the walls, like Ivy. They had a strange smell that caused Fox to flinch at first. He marched over to the wall, snatched a leaf from the wall-crawling plant and crumbled it into his fist.

The squadron leader opened his paw, looking at the now-wilted leaf crumbled in his palm. Was it real? He opened a connection to GreatFox II, but this time, Peppy answered. Fox cursed under his breath, knowing he was about to get a lecture.

"I think I found the plants, I just need verification with a subspace optic substance scan," Fox said, trying to remain simply professional. Peppy looked angry but he simply nodded slowly.

"We'll run the scan," replied the Hare. "Stand by." Peppy's firm toned voice caused Fox to frown. He knew he was in trouble later. It was rare that he'd done anything, growing up, to have Peppy get upset, but when it did happen, Peppy took each instance very seriously. A few minutes passed and Peppy came back with a reply.

"Looks like you've got a winner. I hope you realize that those plants in that base are radioactive (A/N: _Reflections of Peppy. Also Chapter3_). Look Fox, I'm not here to bust your case, you're almost 30," Hare mused, pausing to accept Fox's anticipated rebuttal.

"Don't remind me," Fox chuckled sourly, just as Peppy figured.

The aging hare cracked a light smile then continued; "I think you know what I'm going to say by now, so assume I said it and don't let it happen again. Now, get yourself hydrated like Slippy ordered, earlier. Then get those things back to GreatFox and head straight to the De-Tox chamber. I'm not kidding, those things are lethal, it's the reason that base went abandoned, back in my day of service."

"Why not just condemn the base?" Fox asked, starting to pluck some plant leaves off the wall, stashing them into an empty knapsack on his back.

"The base was locked down and abandoned," Peppy explained, "So that those things would stay contained. It's eerie that they only grow in certain rooms. I'd have thought they would have taken over the entire base by now, but I don't care. I think they should quarantine the entire area and test incendiary devices on the whole region. Repeatedly. I have no happy memories of that base and the mission, Fox. I don't even want to recall it. Anyhow, get your tail out of that base and get back here. Just keep those plants away from everyone, here. Take'em straight to the lab and get them in an air-sealed case."

"You've seen these plants before?" Fox asked, looking a bit surprised.

"Unfortunately," Peppy grumbled softly. "Yes, they were a Venom experiment back in my hay-day, which your father and I tried to shut down. The base became over-run with those things and when Corneria took it over, we had to immediately abandon it and lock it down. I see, now, what Andross was trying to do with them in the first place. It sickens me. I hope he was killed when that dam broke," Hare said, closing the channel without a further word on the subject.

Fox blinked rapidly, shaking his head slowly. "That was strange," he said in a moderately loud voice. "I'm feeling pretty weird, just being around these guys," He added, plucking another leaf off of the wall and stashing it into his knapsack. So far, everything was going far easier than he'd intended. But he knew things would be there to provide some measure of challenge on the way out the door. It always happened that way.

Fox couldn't have been more correct at making such an assumption. He left the room, using his left wrist gauntlet as his source of light and only made it back as far as the dimly illuminated warehouse, when he realized that things were going to get hard on him.

As soon as he turned off the wrist light, he found himself plunged into total darkness. He reached back for his wrist gauntlet again but he couldn't seem to find it on his left wrist anymore. He reached his left paw down to his right, and used his fingertips from his right hand to feel along his now-bare left wrist. Or was it bare?

His heart was pounding for some reason and he licked his dry, parched lips. Fox suddenly felt overheated. His jaw dropped open and he couldn't help but pant softly, trying to get some measure of cool air, if even only on his tongue. He trudged on in the dark, heading directly across the sweltering warehouse room, to where he remembered the hallway to be.

He placed his paws out, squinting through the dark with his superior vulpine night vision, although with absolute darkness, it was still difficult. His paws touched a solid wall and he blinked in confusion. The warehouse room was surly large, but he remembered that the one hallway was almost directly across from the other, when it came down to where everything was located. He felt to the right, then to the left, feeling only wall.

The texture of the wall was gritty like old style bricks. "I'm loosing my mind, that's what is happening here, dammit. I'm going mentally insane," Fox said, trying to help himself snap out of it with a measure of sarcasm. Someone screamed in the distance, causing his ears to perk up. He glanced over his shoulder, squinting through the darkness.

"Where in the hell is my wrist gauntlet!" He shouted now. There was a loud noise in the background, like a sort of mechanical hum. It was as if he was standing besides a massive generator. As loud as it was, it didn't necessarily hurt his ears, but he did have to raise his voice just to hear his own thoughts voiced aloud. "If I can hear a scream over this, I might be able to find… wait, I didn't hear a scream; how could I? Nobody's even here! Dammit!" He clinched his paws into fists, shaking his head hard and squeezing his eyes shut.

He heard the scream again and due to its resonating frequency, it cut through the thrum of noise that had filled his ears so well, leading him off in the direction from which it came. Fox tightened both paws into fists again and stumbled through the darkness, across the warehouse. He reached the other wall but felt along it until he found an opening that he was positive never existed before this point of time.

The hallway opened up, growing overly wide and at the end of the corridor, he could make out some sort of dim lighting. McCloud picked his pace up, heading for the tunnel's end. As he passed into the next room which was overly illuminated, he realized that he was, once again, wearing his gauntlet. He glared at it, uncomprehendingly for a moment, then looked up and gawked in shock.

His heart pounded and his eyes widened dramatically. "I can't… I can't believe this. It can't be real; it has to be a hallucination," He cried out. The sandy-furred pilot took one step back, bringing his left paw to his muzzle, which quivered against his padded palm.

* * *

"**On this team, it's all for one and** one for all," Came the annoyingly shrill voice of Slippy Toad. He closed his eyes sullenly, shouldering a blaster rifle. "I know Fox is naturally immune to that whole thing, but he's not naturally immune to its hallucinogenic side-effect properties. He needs help and I'm appalled that no one offered before now," Slippy continued, grabbing a few yellow detonators. Their soft light-blue palm-sized activation pads were translucent, like a jewel. 

Slippy shoved half a dozen into his bag, reaching to pull the yellow jumpsuit from a hook in his locker. Peppy stood adjacent to the frog, arms folded. "Not even Falco is going to go. And he offered to go, earlier and I wouldn't let him. It can and will kill you just like those Venom Soldiers who were changed. You're not going."

"You…. You can't stop me," Slippy replied with a soft sigh. He stepped into the yellow jumpsuit, pulling a zipper that began between his thighs and zipping it all the way up to the suit's collar just beneath the lump in his throat. A belt, silver with different compartments, came next. Another utility device went across his left shoulder, connecting at his right hip and fingerless gloves followed.

Last but not least, duel wrist-watch computers were strapped to him, just beyond his hand. His every famous red hat with his name on the front came last, resting perfectly between the frog's eyes. Growing up as a kid, people told him that a hat made no sense, since the brim of a hat's point of existence was to shield one's eyes from the sun and his hat rested between his eyes. It didn't matter, it was his style and that was all that ever mattered in the end.

Slippy nodded politely. "Please don't be upset when I say this, Peppy. But you don't run the team; our team leader is down there by himself. If he orders me to return to base while I'm there, then that's what I'll do. But Fox is my friend and I plan to help him."

"To make up for that time you tried to help him in Sector-X and wound up on Titania, needing to be rescued?" Falco said, reminding Slippy of the days of the Lylat War, when Fox finally accepted a mission to hunt down his father's killer.

"I'm not going to sit and listen to this," Slippy said, throwing his hands up, trying not to be frustrated. "I know I'm a screw up, but what I need right now is a support staff. I'm out of here, guys."

"But Slippy," Peppy protested, putting both of his paws up. "If you contract that Virus, you'll die!"

"I'm an amphibian, Peppy," Slippy said, heading for the door. "We don't have an Rh factor, we don't support blood proteins like Rhesus," He added, slipping through the double doors, shifting the gear on his backpack before turning to the right. The double doors slid shut and Falco turned to Peppy. Their gaze met and Falco could only shrug.

Falco shrugged and said something smart that caused Peppy to blink. "Do Avians have RH Factor Blood? I thought Reptiles don't have it and yet all the Venom lizard soldiers succumbed to it; am I missing something here?"

"You might be on to something," Peppy mused, tapping his chin with a frown. "Slippy is really foolish for going off like that when we know so little about this. What if Lucas is wrong? He's a scientist, sure, but what if it was another coincidentally common factor that Fox and Krystal share in their blood and not this whole Rhesus thing at all?"

"What if it requires one or another Protein that is either RH or LH," Came the inquiry from the double doors on the other side of the room. The terrier surgeon, Charles, stepped into the room, shaking his head slowly. "In which case, Slippy would be at a very _great_ risk. It would make him more susceptible if that were the case. We can only hope and pray they don't bite him or Fox doesn't bite him in a state of delusional delirium. Or we can always hope that Slippy is right or just lucky, and nothing will happen to him."

Peppy shook his head slowly, closing his eyes and offering a sigh. "Falco, when they get out of there, I want you to plug that base with a Nova Cluster bomb. We may get fined by the Fortuna Government but that place has turned into a research center for freaks based on the dangerous radioactive plants that grow there and have been growing there since James and I stormed it, years ago."

"Fine," Lombardi said with a nod. "I'll be on stand by when you need me. I'm going to run, try and talk him out of it before he goes, though." He went for the door, turned right and dashed off.

* * *

"**Slippy, wait up!" Shouted Falco** Lombardi, running out towards the side of an Arwing that was powering up. "Dude, do you realize that those lizard soldiers are reptiles? I thought reptiles and amphibians were like, almost the same thing; don't you think you're putting yourself at risk man?" 

"Falco, I've made up my mind," Slippy said, placing a webbed hand on his dashboard. "Now, if ya don't mind, I'm in a hurry."

"It's your funeral, frog-face. I say you wait and think about it and let those scientist guys do a quick test on your blood first," Falco said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Seriously, Falco," Slippy grumbled, "Shut your beak for once, it's not like you've given me any credit before, I doubt you will when this whole thing blows over," Toad told him, mashing the canopy button that caused his cockpit glass to shut. Falco just shook his head, watching the particle buildup grow behind the Arwing.

The avian backed away from the fighter and watched it shoot forward as if it were in a slingshot. It quickly turned into a tiny dot of white in the distance, descending upon Fortuna at great speed. Inside, Slippy was pulling up coordinates on a holo-grid so he could quickly lock on to Fox's position.

Once he found the base, he approached where McCloud's arwing was sitting in silence, landed close to it and climbed out of his ship, trying to move as quickly as he could.

Slippy glanced at the tracker module on his left wrist then Slippy noted the life support readout, taken from Fox McCloud's own computerized gauntlet, which was displayed on the frog's right wrist. Fox's vitals were fluctuating and he was very dehydrated. Slippy patted his vest, where he had a canteen of rapid-hydration fluid. It tasted like crap but it worked fast and that was important.

The frog approached the nearest door and kicked it hard. It didn't budge. Slippy grunted, hopping about on his other foot for a moment before reaching for the handle. He pulled on the door and it opened with ease, causing his heart to drop into his stomach. Of course he couldn't kick the door in, it opened outwards and now he felt foolish. A glance was given over his shoulder to ensure no one was laughing at him then he went inside.

Auxiliary lights were on in tracks in the floor and occasionally in the form of yellow bulbs in the ceiling and some walls. Slippy left the door wide open on purpose, heading further into the base, looking for Fox McCloud. The tracker readout on his left wrist showed that Fox was very close to here and Slippy wanted to hurry.

The tracker also had a heartbeat monitor. Slippy was wearing an insulated body-armor suit that kept the monitor from picking up his own heart rate. Picked up by the sensor, there were roughly ten to twelve heartbeats in the immediate area. He was nearly trembling at the thought of what could be causing those heartbeats.

Slippy shook his head slowly. "Fox wouldn't have wanted me to come all this way only to turn around in fear," He said convincingly to himself. "Fox also doesn't need wimps on his team of hired mercenaries. I'm a fearless mercenary and blowing up Venomian scum is second nature to me," He added, venturing further into the dim illumination.

Slippy had horizontally slatted pupils, unlike his cousin on his mother's side, who had vertical slanted pupils which were fantastic for night sight. He continued further into the dimly illuminated corridor, wondering how he was going to find Fox in this labyrinth of hallways that caused reception to his instruments to become slightly less than perfect.

The heartbeat monitor was showing that there was a group of living beings in the next hallway over. He shuttered involuntarily, hearing the scratching of fingernails that were clawing away at the walls. It was possible that they heard him and wanted to go through the walls if necessary, in order to go after him.

Slippy took it slow, now. He glanced over his shoulder every few minutes and gave himself a word of encouragement, only to continue a little further. He didn't really care for this place, it was dark and dreary. The only comfort about this base was the water and the jungle heat, which was how he tried to keep his room when possible.

One of the doors up ahead was sealed tightly and it required him to open it manually. The door was too heavy and he was too weak to pump the release lever, so he pulled out a short chord attachment from one of his computerized wrist bands and cycled power into the computerized access panel. A green LED light flashed three times then the door opened several inches, stalling out.

Water poured through the opened double sliding doors, but only a very small amount. The water, however, remained constant, gushing through between the two sliding doors. Slippy put one hand and one foot up against one door and his back against the other, trying to push them apart just enough for him to fit all the way through. This was done so he could just run through it, incase he had to escape quickly, in the near future.

He went through three hallways, all empty, in this fashion. By the fourth set of doors, he came across a hallway that was flooded above shoulder level. It took several minutes for that room's water supply to rush into the room he was in, which brought both rooms to an even knee-deep level. Slippy sloshed through the flooded base, suddenly stopping to gawk at the backside of several floating bodies.

The closer he got, the less nervous he became, assuming them to be drowned. He couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as he was within two or three feet of the floating corpses, one of them tried to sit up in the water. Of course it caused them to flop over and half-sink but after a moment, it stood up, along with a few of his buddies.

Slippy reached into his gear bag on his hip, pulling two grenades free. He knew they exploded under water (A/N: _Try it in the stream in the Sauria Level in SF: Assault. They do detonate under water!_) and squeezed the blue sensor pads in his hands then hurled both of them into the group of freaks, backing off quickly.

There was a bright glow from beneath the water as the grenades began to flash violently. They detonated with a loud, yet muffled burst, which came out as more of a bassy rumble. The blast caused a huge splash and served well to turn one of the freaks into kibble. Another one lost a leg and an arm but two rotting soldiers, who were knocked over by the explosion, merely stood back up and continued towards Slippy again.

"Geeze, you guys are annoying!" Slippy exclaimed, reaching for a muscle stunner on his belt. Each blast caused the soldiers to slump into the water, their motor skills completely gone. Slippy then pulled free another weapon; this one had been slung over his right shoulder, sitting on his left hip. It was a Mercenary issue machinegun.

"Okay, suckers, it's time to show you that Slippy isn't someone you should be laughing at!" He cried boisterously, unleashing rapid fire into the gnarled bodies of the remaining two soldiers that were floating in the water, twitching from his stunner. Slippy could feel his ego boosted from the small victory and continued through the water, trying to follow Fox's signal on his left wristband computer gadget.

In the next room, there was more adversity but fewer adversaries. Two soldiers, one lizard and one marmoset, approached him from across the hallway. Slippy, still holding the machine gun, quickly opened fire, riddling the corpses with holes that turned the knee-deep water red. He felt weird, wading through the bloody, stagnant water, wondering if the virus could survive outside of a host body.

Further down the hallway, Slippy heard two gunshots. Their unmistakable sound told him that it came from a Magnum Blaster, which is one of the guns that Fox had taken on this mission. Slippy increased his pace, breaking into a half sprint. His naturally aquatic body had the muscular design to half-hop and run through the water better than most.

* * *

**McCloud sank to his knees before the vision of his father**, gruesomely displayed. James' gory death was detailed in a way that unlocked the memory of when he'd read about his father's demise by torture in the case-file located at the Cornerian Mission Base. He drew his paw back across his left eye, wiping away the stinging sweat that dripped from his brow. 

Something touched his shoulder. Fox whirled around and saw Pigma Dengar standing there with a knife in one pudgy palm and a taser in the other. McCloud narrowed his eyes, turning on his right knee to put all the weight behind his left fist that he could muster. His paw disappeared into the chest of Pigma Dengar but it didn't seem to go as far into the big as he'd thought. And yet, his paw broke out the backside of the body.

McCloud glanced up and blinked. He was staring face to face with a flesh-rotted bio-engineered super-soldier reject. There was another behind this one and it grabbed at Fox, taking him by his painful right shoulder. The pilot cried out in anger and pain.

He forced both of them back, bringing his left shoulder into the first then jumping to his feet and kicking at the second, all in one smooth motion. There were more than two and now he realized that there were more enemies than he'd anticipated. McCloud cursed loudly, shouting at them in an attempt to hear his own words over the loud droning noise in the background.

From down the hall, Slippy could hear gunfire followed after loud shouting. As he followed the noise, he called out to McCloud. Upon hearing Slippy's voice, Fox's ears flickered and the thrumming noise faded away to nothing. Fox shook his head hard, half assuming that Slippy's shouts were just a hallucination, too. The gunshots were real, though. The mercenary pilot continued to use the Magnum pistol on the freaky corpse-commandos.

The frog was hurrying as quickly as he was able. "Fox! It's Slippy! I'm here, so don't shoot!" He called, heading in the direction of the gunshots. The hallway opened up into a larger room, where Slippy could see that Fox was battling multiple soldiers, reloading the power cell on his Magnum Blaster. "Fox! I'm… I'm here to rescue you!" He said, recalling Falco having used that line once. Falco sounded kinda heroic when saying it, so Slippy thought to try saying it with attitude, but it didn't quite have the same impact.

It didn't matter. Fox glanced over his shoulder and offered a weak smile of appreciation. "You guys are putting yourselves into danger by being here," He warned.

"It's just me, Fox. Frogs don't have Rh Factors, so I came to help," Slippy said, pulling out the third grenade of his original 5 piece supply. He mashed down on the sensors that were used to cause the grenade to begin 'cooking'. The frog then threw it over Fox's head, so that it splashed down in front of the approaching Venom cadaver Soldiers.

"Neither do lizards," Fox said, backing away in anticipation of the detonation device. He moved back near Slippy and covered his ears. "For a scientist and a surgeon, they sure seemed to overlook _that_ fact," Fox muttered. His words were interrupted by the muffled, underwater burst that sent the zombified bodies scattering all over the area. They reacted like rag dolls, tossed up into the air, splashing down unceremoniously, all throughout the bay.

"Did you find the plants and collect enough?" Slippy asked, just making sure that the last objective he needed to complete was an escort extraction. Fox nodded in response, causing Slippy to grin and say, "Then let's get outta heeeeere!"

The loud thrumming noise came back, loud as could be in McCloud's mind. "It's good to hear your voice," Fox admitted, trying not to shout over whatever he was hearing in his ears.

"I know I'm not much of a looker, Fox, but it's good to _see_ you too!" Slippy joked, motioning towards the door. Fox's eyes seemed dull and distant, not responding to the hand gesture.

"In my eyes," Fox began, explaining, "You're a giant squid. No lie, man. It's freaky as hell; I'm glad you told me it was you."

"Wow, that's pretty weird!" Slippy chuckled, moving to push against Fox's back, ushering him towards the correct door.

"You're going to lead me right through a brick wall?" Fox asked, trying to portray a tone of seriousness in his voice.

"Close your eyes and have a little faith, will ya?" Slippy said, guiding him forward, into the hallway from which Slippy had originally come. "We've got to hurry! Krystal's white cell count has dropped even more, between when you left and when I left. She went from a count of 7,000 to a count of 1,500 in just the last few hours, Fox. Her normal count is 8,400."

"Don't," Fox sighed softly, "Not numbers; not right now. The numbers are all against us, Slippy. We have to have a little faith, like you said," replied McCloud, opening his eyes just in time to see the brick wall about to collide with him. Instead, he passed right through it and smiled slightly. "Faith, right bud?"

"Yeah," Replied Slippy with a nod of his head, "That's right. You're still a crack shot, right?"

"Blob, corpse or floating hamburger… if I see it, I'll put a bullet in it. Let's hurry, I need to get this stuff out of my system," Fox grumbled thoughtfully.

"That reminds me," Slippy said, reaching for the water bottle he had in a netted pocket on the front of his gear jacket. He took Fox's left paw, flipped the top open then wedged the bottle into the vulpine's palm. "It's going to taste nasty, just guzzle it."

Fox did so, putting the top into his muzzle. He squeezed the bottle to cause the liquid to spray into his mouth, drinking it down quickly. McCloud winced at the taste, after finishing the entire bottle, then winced again at the aftertaste. "What in the world was that? Pedialyte™?"

"No, Fox," Slippy chuckled softly, "But I guess it's almost the same thing, now that I think about it. Either way, it helps with the transepithelial transport of … It's like, you know," Slippy waved his hand in the air, trying to accent what he was saying. Finally he blurted out, "Regarding glucose transport, P90WHO60 promoted the greater absorption, 25 g/L. Solution with 30 mEq/L of Na and high osmolality resulted in water and Na secretion, so… Gah, what I'm trying to say is that stuff will hydrate you faster."

Fox sort of smirked. Slippy could play dumb at times. For example, when asking what Peppy meant about the Aparoid Home-world not being directly proportionate to its mass (A/N: _Cut scene, during_ _last level of SF: Assault_), but he knew that Slippy was a bright engineer. Of course the frog knew what that meant, he just didn't understand how it could be possible, but such was a rare occurrence.

Finally Fox just handed the bottle back to Slippy and said, "So it replaces the electrolytes in my body. That's all ya had to say, bud. Here, take this and let's get the hell outta dodge."

"Right with you on that one!" Slippy exclaimed, securing the bottle with his gear, then turning to lead Fox through the corridor. In McCloud's eyes, the walls were shaping about; shifting their places so that he couldn't tell which way was passable. Approaching the door through which Slippy had entered the base, Toad grew excited, remarking, "We're home free!"

Without warning, an overly large shadow loomed over the doorway, blocking the sunbeam that was on the floor at the bottom of the steps. Slippy and Fox passed through the open door, heading up the stairs, when a large battle droid sank into the sky directly above them, descending upon their position.

To Fox, it was as ugly and hideous as the most grotesque being possible. It only got worse. He struggled with the hallucination the way he had struggled on Sauria a few years ago, with the test of fear and courage. He was gripped by vertigo and struggled to keep himself standing against whatever force that Slippy saw him struggling with.

"Oh my Goddess, Fox!" Toad noted, gripping McCloud by his vest and pushing upwards, to try and help Fox stay standing. Fox clinched his eyes again, then looked back up at the droid. "Fox, scatter!" Slippy shouted, seeing two gun mounts move into position on the belly of the droid.

Fox bolted left and Slippy hopped away, in the opposite direction. Double plasma globs lanced out, slamming into the ground, leaving a small crater in their wake. Fox broke into a sprint and Slippy aimed his machine gun upwards, firing off a few rounds against the belly of the droid, leaving only small dents.

It swooped down at them and Slippy, shorter than the rest of his team mates, stood his ground, knowing it wouldn't come within 4 feet from the ground. He kept the butt stock of the gun up against his shoulder, unloading a clip of rounds against the machine as it passed just over his head.

The Machine turned about, swooping in for another attempt of offensive attack. Slippy pushed his hand into his bag and took out one of the last two grenades, hurling it up on top of the metal monster. He had cooked it in his hand, wearing down the timer before throwing it, so he was guaranteed to get it to explode close enough to damage the battle droid.

The droid shuttered under the blast but didn't actually seem phased. Fox pulled his magnum out and opened fired on it but even the powerful handgun left only deep dents and pockmarks on the surface. "I've got this! Get back, Slippy!" Fox shouted.

"But Fox!" The frog protested. It went unheard. Fox raced after the giant skeletal bird of quivering flesh and muscle, then leapt at it on its next pass. Fox reached for what looked like a tentacle emanating from under the belly but Slippy couldn't even see what he was holding on by, as there were no visible wires or cables. Whatever Fox had managed to snatch, his body jerked forward, being pulled by the attack droid.

He held on for dear life with his left paw, having his magnum in his muzzle. Clinching his heels around either side of the 'tentacle' he was holding, allowed him to reach his left paw further up and inch his way over the droid. The metal beast executed a barrel roll in an attempt to rid itself of Fox McCloud which threw him straight up in the air. Before Slippy could gasp in reaction, Fox landed on the 'dead bird' hallucination that went through the air.

He was lying on the beast's back, taking the magnum from his muzzle into his left paw and placing it against the optical sensor on the top front of the machine. At point blank range, the gunshot ripped through the fuselage, blowing a hole straight through, into the droid's armored covering.

Smoke gushed out through the hole he'd put into the droid's body and it spun out of control. The avionics manifold had been destroyed as well as the optical sensory components. It spiraled about; Fox was thrown from atop of the cumbersome beast. He slammed into the ground, landing on his right shoulder which caused a sickening crunch followed by a rush of whatever air was in his lungs to allow for a massive cry of pain.

Almost immediately, Fox passed out, retreating into the depths of unconsciousness to stave off the sharp, piercing injury. It was hot like the summer and cold like the winter at all the same time. His breath left his lungs and turned into a throaty groan. His body collapsed flat, going still. Slippy dashed across the muddy exterior of the base, leaving footprints across the grounds.

The frog dropped to his knees, by Fox. He quickly rolled Fox onto his left side and blinked rapidly, seeing the substantial wound. Toad lifted his left wrist, opening a channel with GreatFox. "FALCO, I need a multi-passenger shuttle here, NOW!"

"Dude," Falco replied over the communicator, "Calm down, you know we don't have one yet. What's wrong?"

"Bring GreatFox to the surface, immediately, Fox and I have the plants but he's been injured and it could be fatal if we don't hurry. I can't put him in an Arwing like this; we need GreatFox here, now!"

For Fox, for now, everything was dark. His world slowed to a pause and everything faded away…

* * *

_E p i l o g u e_

**A breath was consciously taken**. Fox lay there for a moment in the dark and simply breathed without pain. How good it felt to breathe pain free. He basically lay there, enjoying the moment for the time being. Finally, Fox McCloud opened his eyes, feeling well rested for the first time in days. It wasn't the same sensation of recovery like last time.

This time he was laying there in the GreatFox recovery room. Last time, it was a few days in bed and he had the luxury of reading. As Fox could recall, he'd had a few books to leaf through, the title alone of one of those books could still make him blush. However, the one that he'd allowed himself to be consumed with was about a Sniper. (A/N: _The Sharpshooter by Luis Berrios, writing a side-story based off of Fox's recovery time from my Reflections Of Krystal book. Thanks Luis! So far so good, from what I've read! Everyone go find it and read it:D_)

In it, Fox had learned a few things about sniping but the engaging story helped him to really see the Sniper Rifle in a different light. He wound up taking the knowledge to the field when the Aparoids attacked. He had to rely on a Sniper Rifle to take out Radar Jammers and to pick off enemies at a distance and the story had a profound impact on him later on.

However, here and now, Fox sat up and felt incredibly well rested. His arm felt a bit strange, however. He lifted his right paw, nervously at first, and glanced at his paw. There was no pain. He closed his paw with a bit more confidence in the gesture; no pain. Everything would be different from now on and he could get his mind back on course for the most important task ahead of himself: Krystal.

Slippy came into the room with his father, Beltino Toad. For the first time, he noticed that Charles Terrier was against the back wall, arms folded, sleeping in a chair. No one wanted to wake him; the surgeon had earned a good nap. Beltino approached Fox and playfully slugged him on the right shoulder.

"How's it feeling Fox?"

"How…" Fox trailed off, looking Beltino over for a moment and clearing his throat before continuing with his question. "How did you guys cause my arm to heal so quickly? I was in physical therapy last time and it hurt like the dickens."

"Oh you know," Beltino said, almost bashfully, "I built it." He paused, then gave a cheesy grin, reaching to push those large glasses up his nose, so they rested on his face a bit better. He then dropped his hands down to toy with his ascot for a moment while Fox simply gawked.

"But will I ever need to replace it?" Fox sort of blurted out.

"It'll easily outlast you, Fox," Beltino replied with a grin. "I've got to scoot boys. Corneria pays me to work for them, not StarFox and let me tell ya, I'm a little behind on my work. You know you're like a second son to me, Fox. I can't help it, you and Slippy were school-hood chums. Anyways, take care boys," He said, waving to them both and walking off the bridge.

He got as far as the doorway then glanced over his shoulder and added, "Save your praise for the Surgeon and Luke, the Scientist guy on Corneria. I know Lucas a little, he works in my building, but they're the heroes here, not me. I defeated the Aparoids with my invention but theirs saved lives. See you guys later," Beltino said, bidding them his farewells and leaving the GreatFox medical bay.

Fox turned to Slippy, half gawking. Slippy saw this and chuckled before speaking again. "Dad likes to feel appreciated, but he's a stickler for making sure that other people get the credit that they deserve."

"Of course," Fox replied, looking down at his right paw. "But I'm shocked about having my shoulder become bionic. I don't know how I feel about that. What if it slows down my natural reflexes as a pilot or on the field?"

"Fox," Slippy said, reaching for a PDA on the stand behind his medical bed. He handed the object over to McCloud and for the first time, Slippy decided that he would hold his tongue and let the numbers speak for themselves.

Fox's eyes skimmed left to right, perusing the data and flow charts that were illustrated. By the numbers, his natural reflex tests, which were displayed from the archive kept at the Corneria military complex and the numbers next to them that showed his new abilities were quite different, now.

Fox glanced back and forth, shaking his head slowly. His right arm was shown to nearly double his abilities. Strength factors increased, his reflex response time nearly doubled and the increase in his physical endurance increased exponentially. The bionic part would allow for blood and oxygen flow to be optimized so that his muscles in his arms and paws would be that much more efficient.

Not only that, but his adrenaline activation response time was exactly the same on both sides, which made him smile. He would be able to punch through a brick wall now, if he so desired. It would shatter his wrist, paw and knuckles but at least he had the ability should he ever need it. Not that he would, but knowing his shoulder would be able to dish it out was nice to know.

McCloud glanced over his shoulder, seeing the surgeon still asleep. He grinned then turned back to his child-hood friend and whispered softly. "You know, Slippy, I think I'm feeling good enough to get out and stretch. I've got something on my mind that I've really been meaning to do. Don't tell the guys I'm gone unless it's urgent. I've got to head to Corneria, there's just something I absolutely have to do, man."

Slippy nodded, backing away from the bed to give Fox some space. Fox grinned to himself in thought, then walked across the medical bay to get himself changed out of the surgery gown and get his clothes on. Now to get that little errand completed. He stopped in the doorway the way Beltino had a few moments ago, then asked, "I take it, by the way Beltino spoke, that She is all right?"

"She's sleeping peacefully right now. She's been revived and her vitals are very good but she's not woken up from her coma," Slippy said, then paused. He frowned thoughtfully and added, "I'm really sorry, Fox."

"It's fine. She'll be all right, just… have faith, you know?" Fox offered a sad smile; his words were a reminder to Slippy's own advice used back in the base. "Oh, and Slippy?"

"Yeah Fox?" The portly pilot asked.

"That was _incredibly_ brave," Fox said, speaking of Slippy Toad's rescue attempt in the face of adversity. "You saved my life, man. Both Krystal and I owe you our lives. If Falco hasn't shaken your hand for what you did, then he will when I tell him exactly what happened in detail. You should be proud of yourself; I am."

Slippy's expression melted into a humbled smile. "Thanks, Fox. You've done the same for me. I was glad to return the favor," Said the frog in reminder of his situation in Sector-X that got him captured on Titania a decade prior.

"Yeah but what you did," Fox said, still looking back over his shoulder in the doorway, "Took a real pair of brass buttons, buddy. I saw you down there standing like a stone statue when that thing swooped for an attack. You didn't even flinch, man. Much respect, buddy. Be back soon," Fox told him, reaching his right paw around and holding his fist out.

Slippy approached him slowly, closing his hand and reaching out so that his knuckles connected with Fox's own in a gesture of respect. "Thanks, Fox."

"No, Slippy," McCloud said softly. "Thank _you_. I was literally in another world in my brain from that stuff. I know I ran down there by myself and a leader without a team isn't a leader at all. You were the man of the hour, Slippy." With that, Fox left.

_Later…_

Hours turned into days and now all Fox McCloud could do was reflect on himself for the moment… He had a huge decision ahead of himself. With Krystal still in a coma, he had to ensure that he had all his 'ducks in a row' before she woke up. That was the most important thing he could give to her, right now. While hurting inside, seeing her there like sleeping beauty, he knew he had to stick behind the advice that Slippy gave him back in the base. He had to have faith.

* * *

**Fox thrust his right paw outwards. The soft mechanical whirring noise was absorbed** by the special material that covered his shoulder. Real flesh and fur were placed back over the shoulder but it still felt awkward, no matter how normal it looked. 

Two muscles in his right shoulder had been replaced and now picking up a rocket launcher would seem only too easy. He knew he had to be careful when throwing a punch, lest he pack such a wallop that he shatters his own knuckles from the impact. He now had the power in his right shoulder to do anything he needed to do; the problem was learning how to properly gauge the use of his own strength. It had to be one of Beltino's finest inventions.

Fox was simply itching to have had this bionic implant when he went up against Andross back in the Laboratory. It was too late now. Andross was probably dead after the dam broke. "Better them then us," Fox muttered under his breath. He pulled a shirt over his arms, then buttoned it from bottom to top.

Taking his father's Academy Graduation tie out of the wooden box, Fox ran it under his collar and carefully drew the fabric into a plump, triangular knot. Making a few quick adjustments, Fox glanced into a mirror to make sure it looked good.

"All right, let's do this," He mused quietly, swallowing the lump in his throat. He hated this. McCloud left his room, walking down the hallway and heading for the new bridge. It was far more professional looking than the way they kept their bridge in the past. The Pilot stopped outside of the double sliding doors, took a slow breath to calm his nerves then stepped forward. The doors slid open.

He couldn't even see the main view screen; it was as if the entire section of wall didn't exist. There were so many reporters packed into the front of the bridge, from so many different Television networks from so many planets, that Fox had no clue as to how many there actually were.

Fox passed his team, minus Krystal, nodding to each one in approval. Once he got to Falco at the end of the line, McCloud offered the avian a scowl for wearing a studded leather jacket overtop of a plain dress shirt with a clip-on tie. "Real nice," Fox whispered.

"I've got a reputation to uphold," Falco said, sliding his jacket off, only to reveal that the sleeves were nonexistent. His dress shirt was a button-up tank top and with a grin, Lombardi tossed the leather coat over one shoulder, half slouching. The gaze between the two lasted for a moment until the snap of several cameras broke Fox of his reverie. His scowl melted into a half-grin.

"Its fine," Fox finally said, walking passed his long-time friend. Carefully placed footfalls took him to the captain's chair. The pilot stood behind it, resting his arms across the backrest. Several news crews offered a boom-stand mic forward, so that they hung just above Fox's brow.

"So," Fox said casually, "Is this live or what?" A low round of chuckles filled the room, in reply. "Yeah, so I know a press conference is usually done at a table or arranged by agents or all that stuff. I'm the last person to want to do one of these but General Pepper has a different outlook on it. John Pepper has this friendly personality when things are peaceful; he's better suited for this stuff than I am."

Another slow round of chuckles filled the bridge. Fox licked his lips, somewhat apprehensively, then added, "When on Fortuna, we had just come from a volunteer mission on Corneria, in an attempt to do our part and try to inspire everyone to do their part for those that are injured. In the end, I wound up being sent out to Fortuna and never had a chance to give blood. Now I realize how important that is, so I'd like to start by telling everyone to donate blood." Fox paused.

After a moment, he offered a thin smile. It was business time. "We went to the Fortuna outpost where Andrew Oikonni had begun an operation leading up to the Aparoid attack. The base seemed abandoned. This mission was part of an attempt to help keep the remainder of Oikonni's forces under control to free up some of our militia. We had hopes of sending Cornerian Soldiers home so they could get back to helping out on the home front.

"Oddly enough, the reports of Venom soldiers couldn't be verified; we didn't see one soldier. Troop movement dropped off the scope of Corneria's Intelligence, literally overnight," Fox continued. "We came across an outpost just a short distance from the main base. It was first on our list to explore. Inside, we found the entire center was shut down; there were bodies everywhere. Upon further investigation, we learned that the Oikonni hunger for Bio Weapon experimentation never ended. Soldiers were being transformed into freakishly ghoulish science experiment failures."

"Is it true you lost one of your team members to these monstrosities?" Asked one of the reporters.

"No," Fox replied, shaking his head slowly. "I was injured on site at the main base. She was injured during our attempt of shutting the base down; she was swept away when the dam burst."

"How were you injured, Mister McCloud?" Asked another.

"Specifically," Fox started, offering another slight frown, "I broke my collar bone and dislocated my shoulder in an attempt to protect Krystal while executing a plan to escape from a plethora of the bio-weapon soldiers."

The floor turned back to Fox who went back into details of what happened and what the team learned about Oikonni's experiments, first hand. He went back into telling the story, occasionally answering a question or two along the way, drawing it out because he dreaded the part where he answers questions at the end of conference.

_Meanwhile…_

The Oracle placed her paw against Krystal's forehead. She shut her eyes, from within this dreamstate, and offered a soft smile and nod of respect. The azure-furred vixen nuzzled into the Oracle's palm. "But what happens now? I want to give him everything you told me about before. (A/N: _Last chapter of Reflections Of Krystal, Oracle told her about the future mate and even possible offspring. Go check it out if you've forgotten_.) Is it still possible?" She asked.

"Indeed, it is possible," The Oracle replied. "This man, for whom you've given your heart, has _not_ defeated his greatest enemy. The likes of this man, Andross, is going to be difficult to destroy. You may not remember every detail of this conversation when you awake, but know this: You will find true happiness, young girl."

Krystal lowered her eyes in respect and in guilt. "Why did all of this happen? Was it fate? I feel so guilty, that my people may have been meant to die so that I would run into my future love."

The Oracle tilted her little old head and offered a coy grin at Krystal before going into an explanation. "Once Andross sealed the fate of our race, fate itself delivered a member of our race to someone deserving. This was done so that fate could ensure the survival of our race in some respect. This was done to bring you love and happiness and this was done to quell the pain-filled past of a deserving Hero. For all his pain, he must be rewarded for his selfless actions."

"But Fox is a mercenary; I'm not saying he's selfish but," Krystal trailed off, seeing the Oracle about to speak once more.

"Little one," Said the aging woman, "Fox McCloud asks for money because he feels that his team mates should not endanger themselves without being properly compensated. Yes, money as clouded his mind in some small aspects but he is, and always will be, as selfless, honest, giving man. It's fated that, one day in the future, a new race shall be born from your union. One of Lylat and Cerinian descent. It shall be so."

"When will all of this transpire?" Krystal asked, blinking her eyes against the strange sensation of her physical body beginning to awaken. The conversation with the Oracle began to fade and she bit her lip in anticipation.

"When the time is right, the Goddess will bestow a gift upon thy body," The Oracle continued, her words growing distant and muffled. "The fruit of your loins shall be called to action in the same way your love has been called to action... for the good of humanity. Teach your offspring all you can when that moment of the distant future finally arrives... It is paramount to the greater good of us all...!"

Krystal's mind was beginning to awaken and she struggled to recall every detail and remember what had just been said to her, but ingrained within her subconcious was an order to ensure that every possible thing she could learn, from Fox and from her own life's experiences, would be written down one day... so that the future of her line would be able to garnish such valuble information.

She struggled to repeat every word to herself, fighting the urge to awaken too soon. The message bestowed upon her was too valuable, or so she felt. But it was difficult to stay under for much longer. (A/N: _Do I smell a Reflections Of The Distant Future, staring their offspring? Let me know_.)

The gloom began to fade. Her mind was locked in a lucid dream, replaying her last moments with the oracle. She lay there and feelings flooded her body. For the first time in what seemed like ages, she felt well rested. She felt at peace, like the suffering cries from Corneria had finally stopped calling out in agony. How much time had passed?

She opened her eyes and the dimly illuminated room was a comfort to her gaze. She sat up and to her surprise, she felt strong and fit. Her body felt wonderful. Rob was in the room with her, charging his main batteries. She rubbed her eyes and slid off the medical mattress, clad in a medical gown with shorts and one of the Cornerian chest-supporting undergarment pieces on. She couldn't really remember their word for it. Something like "bra", but she wasn't totally sure.

Rob's eyes fluttered open, his proximity and motion detection systems having alerted him to her movement. Before she could ask, he told her, "Fox and the others are taking part of a media conference on the main bridge."

She nodded in reply and made her way out of the room. To her surprise, she wasn't on the medical ship. And how could she have thought otherwise? A medical ship would have had a live staff in the room and Rob wouldn't have been charging in the small medical bay.

"The new GreatFox, hmm?" She mused softly to herself. Her room was in the same style of layout as the last GreatFox. It wasn't difficult to find. Her old key-code worked and the door swished open with ease. Inside, her closet had been filled with several of her old favorite outfits. However, she opted for something a touch more on the opulent side.

She selected a ball gown with lavish cuts that started just beneath her hips, displaying the branded inking on her thighs. After a moment of getting her things ready, she laid the dress out, across the bed, and headed for the shower. Something inside her mind told her that this might just be a formal event.

* * *

"**What I mean to say is**," Fox said, nearly impatient in his tone, "The toxin worked off a protean that wasn't in my blood. It's assumed that this was used on Andross to help him rejuvenate but he was in a controlled stasis tube. No, it didn't repair my shoulder after I bit him and laid in the tank for 11 hours," the Pilot told them. 

"What about the romantic rumors that you're involved with Miss Krystal? They're all over the tabloids; we wanted to know how true that stuff really was," Another journalist inquired.

"It's tentative," Fox replied, looking embarrassed. "She'd be better prepared to answer those questions for you."

"Mr. McCloud, do you feel responsible for her injury?" To the next question, Fox shrugged slightly then nodded. The same journalist asked, "Do you think she blames you, Mr. McCloud?"

Fox balked. "Well, I… I think that…" He simply trailed off.

Behind his voice, at the far end of the bridge, a swishing sound was heard, followed by a dainty, feminine voice. "I think she blames Fox McCloud for saving her life, being a true man for her and I think she certainly blames Fox McCloud for being so easy to fall in love with," Said Krystal, stepping onto the deck, looking elegant.

She had a data display in her paw that she'd been reading on her way up to the bridge and placed it on top of a communications terminal on her way in. It was obvious that she had skimmed it to make sure that she was up to speed on what had happened thus far. Her social and personable personality was quick to shine and it caused all the members of StarFox to blink in surprise, seeing her awake from her coma _and_ dressed for the public.

She crossed the bridge and approached the first reporter in the line then said, "Yes, StarFox is getting paid for their time on Fortuna." She strafed to the side, facing the next reporter and said, "We're unsure the outcome of Andross and Andrew; we know they were washed away when the dam broke. Corneria may send a search party but if they offer the job to StarFox, we'll be only too happy to look." She took another step to the right, addressing a third journalist, "Yes, it's true. I'm telepathic. My whole race was telepathic; we have trouble reading over dreadfully strong emotions. It's like trying to see a Navy-blue hover-car in the middle of a lot full of black ones, just after the sun sets."

Krystal continued this, moving down the line and offering an answer to each question of each journalist, only offering two "I don't know how to answer your question" lines to anybody in the whole group. When she got to the last journalist, she read his thoughts and said, "Something I want to tell bachelorettes out there? Fox is mine. He's a fine man whose kiss is like living a dream." She walked back towards Fox McCloud, turned back to the group and said, "I want everyone here to know Fox saved my life.

"Pulling me into his arms may have inadvertently and selfishly pulled me free of my seat belt. That may have caused me to be sucked out through the windshield. The fact of the matter," She told everyone, "Is I realized he pulled me into his arms just in time for the back end of the tank to be crushed. I would have been killed instantly. I stand before you today because of Fox McCloud. We have always enjoyed one another's company and we've always felt strongly drawn to the other but during this mission, I can honestly say, I've fallen head over heels in love with this man." The room was silent.

Fox bit his lower lip slightly. He wasn't as willing to get public attention but he felt the overwhelming urge to reach his paw into his pocket. His fingertips touched the rounded felt-covered box and he thumbed it open. His thumb and index wiggled into the box, wrestling out the small metallic object within.

Krystal turned back to Fox, trying to filter out all their mental thoughts so she could take a moment to concentrate on him. His right arm began to slide free of his dress-jacket pocket and time seemed to slow down in that instant for her. She had seen the Lylat customs and read hundreds of incredibly adorable stories involving their traditions. It was something she'd familiarized herself with and fantasized over.

The sparkling luster caught her eye as Fox's paw escaped his pocket. Her breath eluded her and her eyes widened, simultaneous to her pupils shrinking to pinholes. His paw slowly raced from his pocket and his left paw came upwards to join his right.

Her nose began to lower simultaneous to his body sinking to the ground before her. Crashing to one knee, time was not the only thing to come to a stop. Everything around them went dark and her eyes and attention became hyper-focused upon only him and her whole world beyond was temporarily non-existent.

Ethereal light seemed to bathe them both, causing the rest of the world to stand still, that much more. A slow eruption of a tiny light happened off to the side, reflecting against the side of her eyes, barely noticed by her peripheral vision. It was followed by another. The camera flashes were nothing more than the mere twinkling of stars.

His paw rose with a graceful arc, bringing forth the most unique platinum object one could hope to lay eyes on. On either side, there were emeralds as green as envy and rubies as bright as Solar, the system's main star. They matched perfectly to the jewels she had from Cerinia.

In the center, the band was perfected by the clearest, purest diamond. The color was an 'A', the class was perfect, the cut was incredible. And yet, for all that it was worth and for all it cost, the simple symbolic meaning in which it was designed to represent made it shine with a magical aura.

Her ears perked and she was pretty sure Fox asked, "Will you…" But she wasn't really sure. Maybe there was silence and yet she didn't care. She knew what this traditional custom meant. She saw him before her, upon one knee. She saw his paws rising up to the same level as her heart, offering a symbol of love, adoration, fidelity and ultimate promise.

Her jaw fell open and the word rolled across her tongue in a way that was clearly enunciated, powerfully verbalized and behind that simple word was every feeling that ran through her heart, all at once. She cried the word out all at once with the breath she had been holding this entire moment. **"Yes!"**

* * *

A/N: _And there it is! The end! The last word of Reflections Of The Future. Sorry it took so long. I've got so much going at once. This is easily my longest chapter. It's OVER 31 pages, using WORD. It's got more "words" (a little over 16,000) than any other chapter for any other story I've written. I wanted to make sure it all ended in one full swing and I really wanted to go for the home run here. I wanted to make sure I've put in everything that it needed. The oracle, the proposal, the spotlight for Slippy and while I do feel like I rushed the end just a bit… I really feel like I touched all the bases on the way to home plate. I'm happy with the rest of the story but really do feel like something is missing here. _

_I WILL write a Reflections Of The Distant Future, if at least 5 people tell me that they would enjoy reading such. It would be based on the Oracle's prophecies in the last chapters of Reflections of Krystal AND Reflections Of The Future. It would be about the offspring of Fox and Krystal. It would sway from the game series and be totally original, but it would reflect on the past and the history set forth by the games. Well? LET ME KNOW!_

_I hope everyone had happy holidays. I really want to tell you guys how much I appreciate the readers who read this story and it's prequel. It means a lot to me. I've seen two people ask to write off-shoots of these stories…Please, by all means, if you want to use the Reflections Series universe as guidelines for your stories… I'm delighted. _

_I want to hear from everyone who read this story, even if it's just a hello. That way I can thank each and every one of you for reading and spending your time on my material. It means a great deal to me! _

_Everything you guys have written has touched my heart and I can't think of anything that makes me happier than writing something to please the fans of StarFox/StarWing. I've got great plans for Reflections of Peppy. I want to hear from everyone, not only about what they thought if they care to elaborate (if not that's fine!), but I want to hear what kind of future requests are out there for the Reflections Series. I have planned to write another Reflections Story, based on Krystal, after the next StarFox game comes out. Until then…_

_I've got Reflections of Peppy in the works. I've got a short story comedy about Falco, Katt and Panther, with a side plot of Krystal having temporary amnesia and turning into a tech-nerd. It should be amusing; it was a request. _

_Also, I want to write a Reflections of StarWolf story. It will be about more than just one character. I'll include Wolf, Leon and of course Panther. I'll include their outlook on Pigma Dengar and how things came about before the Aparoid situation and leading up to it for Dengar. _

_It will be fairly extensive for them and being that their lives probably hold a bit more self-found action than StarFox, it should make for a great read. I don't know when I'll get to start it. It shouldn't take long but it will have very little StarFox IN it. Is that okay with everyone? It will tie into ALL my reflections stories, including a short visit that Wolf makes to the Fortuna base featured in this story and a few other things. It should be very interesting, indeed. _

_I would like to take just a quick moment to thank each individual person who has reviewed this story, so far, that I can recall off the top of my paw. You've all given me reason to continue and finish this piece. You've all given me reasons to write my other stories and continue onward. You've all given me a reason to help other writers write THEIR pieces. You've inspired ME to inspire OTHERS. They thank me and ask me where I got such motivation… the truth is… From you, the readers. WEEE!_

_Kit_

_Thanks goes out to: (This is where you read over the people who left feedback, by going up to the top and clicking on the little number of reviews I've received. :D Fan Fiction is rumored to be going after writers who spill out a bunch of shout-outs. I'm sorry! Anyhow, THANK YOU! )_


	17. IMPORTANT NOTE about the sequel

Today I got another feedback-reply asking to read REFLECTIONS OF A DISTANT FUTURE. Well... I'm glad you want to read it, so... the good news is: It's already over 20 chapters long AND it's posted here on the internet for you to start reading!

I'm sure that those of you who already closely follow my works know this by now but...

Reflections of the DISTANT FUTURE IS in the works. (23 chapters as of August 1st, 2007. The 23rd chapter will be posted soon, I promise!)

But I didn't LIKE that name, so I went with: REFLECTIONS OF A NEW GENERATION. For those of you who wanted to read it, GO READ IT NOW! It's up! I swear! I promise! It's on my bio-page down at the bottom where it lists the stories I've written thus-far!

I've had so very many people tell me they'd LOVE to read a "distant future" sequel and I'm afraid they're just confused that I called the story something ELSE…

So I'm putting this message up to explain it, just … you know… to clarify.

Also, I'm really blown away with the popularity of this story.

I finished it in about 3 months and… now, years later… It's about to surpass the "20 thousand hit" mark. When I finished it, back in the day, it ended with a little more than "2 thousand" hits.

Having a link to this story from Dwight's "Krystal Fan Page" and having people put links to it on the Forum boards on Nintendo's website really, REALLY made the difference. There are several websites that have posted links to this story and I DEEPLY appreciate that!

I rushed through this story, and I've learned so much about writing over the last few years… so I'm really GLAD people liked this story.

I'm also working on a PREQUEL now, called Reflections Of FOX MCCLOUD. A lot of people asked for it. There are a lot of people that didn't want to put their name or email address up for me to personally thank them… so… Now I'm working on Reflections of Fox McCloud. I've got over 10 chapters posted thus-far.

I'm on Chapter 23 of Reflections of a New Generation (which is what I've decided to name the "DISTANT FUTURE" story, when all was said and done). Both stories coincide with one another. Fox and Krystal return in Reflections of a New Generation on or around chapter 22.

In reflections of Fox McCloud, I start with him as a 16 year old, right before meeting Falco… then I detail a little bit of the time he spends with his roommate, Bill Gray. I talk about his relationship with Fara Phoenix, Miyu Lynx and the "depressed single period" that lasts for YEARS up until he meets Krystal on Sauria.

I'm also doing a REFLECTIONS OF PEPPY, which starts around the time that Fox's mother died. I rarely update it because I focus on Ref-of Fox and Ref-of a New Gen so darn much.

But I'll eventually finish all 3. At any rate, THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! For those of you who don't leave contact information… THANK YOU! I'd thank you in person which I usually do… but I understand that some people don't wish to be contacted. So I'm taking this opportunity to tell you: Thank you, I appreciate that you took the time to read my work and then to leave your feedback. Good or bad, I respect everything that people tell me. I understand that not everyone will like every part of every story I write… You can please some of the people some of the time, but NEVER can you please ALL of the people ALL of the time.

But for those who enjoyed my story in the Reflections Series… for those who enjoyed Reflections of Krystal, Reflections of the Future, Reflections of Peppy, Reflections of a New Generation and Reflections of Fox McCloud… I thank you for taking the time to read it… and I'm GLAD you enjoyed them.

For those who DIDN'T like the stories… if you've made it this far, thank you for your time! If there's anything you'd like to suggest… I'm always open-minded to suggestions! After all, I always intended to make Fox the secondary character in these stories… I intended to tell a story about Fox McCloud through the eyes and actions of his peers… through Krystal, through Peppy, etc… BUT a lot of people SUGGESTED that I do a story about Fox ANYWAYS, so… I did. Why? Cause I listen to my readers!

Thanks again! I consider all of you to be my friend so… drop me a line! PM, Email, whatever you want! I'll always try and reply! If I don't, re-send it and hopefully I'll see it then!

If you were curious about the dates on this story:

Published: 9-28-05 – Last Updated: 12-30-05

See that? I wrote it in about 90 days, give or take… and I finished it way back in 2005. For people to STILL read it… well… that says a lot to me. So, again… THANK YOU :D

Much love,  
KIT-KARAMAK

* * *

PS: check out the page that fan-readers made for me on WIKIFUR dot COM (just search for KIT hyphen KARAMAK) …I've recently revised some of the things said there, so that everything was accurate but… regardless, I appreciate the sentiment! You guys rule. 

Oh yeah… for those of you who came here to read the story from another page and aren't really familiar with FanFiction's website… This site doesn't allow Web Links except in the BIO page… so, if you wanna read the rest of my REFLECTIONS stories, just click on my name up top and go to my BIO page, then go down to the bottom… you'll see the other REFLECTIONS stories. There are FIVE of these stories in the series, so far! (I really wanna do one about Wolf but I don't have the time right yet. Who knows. Falco or Slippy would be another interesting person to follow.)

Take care!


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